INUUTEQ STORCH, HENRIK SAXGREN, JULIE LAURITZEN & MARIUS ERIKSEN

A gust of wind wakes us from our slumber

02.11.26 - 07.04.27

Inuuteq Storch

A gust of wind wakes us from our slumber presents four Nordic artists exploring the circumpolar North: Inuuteq Storch (Greenland), Henrik Saxgren (Denmark), Julie Lauritzen (Norway), and Marius Eriksen (Norway). The exhibition title is inspired by Marius Eriksen’s response to the Norwegian environmental and existential philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990) and his body of thought. Eriksen’s contribution to the group show, A gust of wind wakes us from our slumber, is a photographic and textual exploration of Zapffe’s philosophy, his photographic archive, and Eriksen’s own photographs from places closely connected to Zapffe. Eriksen’s images and Zapffe’s photographs from the National Library’s archive are presented alongside an essay by Eriksen discussing Zapffe’s body of thought and how it resonates with contemporary debates on climate change, population growth, resource consumption, and our relationship with nature.

Julie Lauritzen’s installation An Arctic Epic features previously unpublished photographs by Norwegian polar explorer Størker T. Størkersen (1881-1940), taken during expeditions in Northwest Canada and while mapping the continental shelf off Alaska and the region’s last uncharted areas. The archive, kept in Lauritzen’s family for generations, comprises over 140 slides that were buried during the war and have since been protected by the family in various ways following Størkersen’s death. This unique material represents a part of Norwegian polar, colonial, and photographic history not previously exhibited and offers a perspective on a generation of men who claimed unknown lands, renamed places after themselves, and eventually married and had children with the indigenous population. 

Ultima Thule has historically been referred to as the world’s northernmost boundary—a mythical place that has attracted artists, writers, researchers, and adventurers for over 200 years. Danish artist Henrik Saxgren, who situates his own work within this tradition, travelled seven times to the area named Thule by the Danish-Greenlandic polar explorer Knud Rasmussen. Between April 2014 and September 2016 Saxgren spent six months with hunters on the sea ice of Northwest Greenland, documenting what may be the last generation of hunting culture in Thule.

Greenlandic artist Inuuteq Storch challenges ideas of photographic heritage and responds directly to the relationship between Denmark and Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) through the works Anachronism and Keepers of the Ocean. Unlike most of the other artists in the exhibition, Storch tells stories about his own country. His approach is shaped by ideas of photographic legacy, drawing on family albums, archives, and intimate everyday moments to explore how photography shapes both personal and national identity. Keepers of the Ocean features everyday images of warm homes, parties and winter landscapes from Storch’s hometown Sisimiut, offering an inside portrayal of contemporary Greenlandic life. In the project room, the video installation Anachronism presents found footage from the 1940s and 50s as a response to Greenlandic narratives defined by outsider perspectives. Against the geopolitical backdrop of tensions between Greenland, Denmark, and the USA, both Storch and Saxgren challenge notions of a shared Nordic identity.

Julie Lauritzen’s An Arctic Epic and Inuuteq Storch’s Anachronism are exhibited in the Project Space during the container’s opening hours (see information posted at the entrance to the Project Space).