Though the days are getting shorter, the importance of Museum Ovartaci does not change! The remaining summer and the coming autumn will be buzzing of life with a wide selection of activities and events on your favourite museum. Museum Ovartaci will celebrate what would have been Ovartaci’s 130th birthday on September 26.

Meet Museum Ovartaci in Slaraffenlandteltet in Byparken during Aarhus Festuge from August 31 to September 5. Together with Det Finurlige Flyselskab, the museum invites all children to contribute to the creation of a new artwork “FRI” – a giant flying can of sardines inspired by Ovartaci.
All the materials used are recycled and Museum Ovartaci and Det Finurlige Flyselskab will create the perfect setting for creativity to run wild.
The staff from Det Finurlige Flyselskab will use the inspirational art and history of Ovartaci to talk about mental well-being, diversity, and what “normality” is. The subtheme from Aarhus Festuge is “Outside the norm”.
Drop by the tent in Slaraffenland in Byparken and create your own unique contribution. After Festugen the finished artwork “FRI” is available for the public at Museum Ovartaci in Kulturhus Bunkeren.

To celebrate Aarhus Festuge, Museum Ovartaci presents two new guided tours focusing on normality in “Mind the gap – Outside the norm”.
During his time, Ovartaci often varied from the norm, but would he still be considered abnormal today? All this and much more is what you can learn more about when our skilled tour guides invite you to join a guided tour in the main exhibition. The tour is approx. one hour, and we recommend you explore the exhibition on your own afterwards.
There are 25 spots available on the tour, sold first come first served. Price is 75 DKK for the tour and 95 DKK in admission to the museum.

In September a new large monography on one of Danmark’s most extraordinary artists, Ovartaci, will be released. The book is the first of its kind that, partly in chronological form, journey through the artist’s life and highlights his works in the wider art-, culture-, and psychiatric history. Important themes such as gender, identity, and madness are central in the book. A special book release on Museum Ovartaci will take place after the publishing - date to be announced. Here you can meet the author of the book and get a signed copy.

From August 30, some of Ovartaci’s works will be part of an exhibition at Nikolaj Kunsthal together with Kathrine Ærtebjerg. The new exhibition is an extension of the one currently on display at Museum Ovartaci.

In this new exhibition called ”En sky er en pige er en dreng er en kat”(A cloud is girl is a boy is a cat) at Nikolaj Kunsthal, Ærtebjerg expresses sensuous and colourful reflections on identity, gender, and existence. All this is done in collaboration with Ovartaci who enters her world: a selection of his artworks has been installed side by side with brand new and surreal works from Ærtebjerg. How can you imagine life in the world? How does the world present itself to our eyes? How does life and death belong together? Questions like these are themes in the new exhibition with new paintings, sculptures, and paper art by Ærtebjerg along with new sound effects.

Tuesday 3 September at 16-18 Museum Ovartaci invites once again to ‘Open Forum’ under the heading ‘Beyond Diagnosis’. Participation is free and does not require registration.

Facilitators are Amalie Schmidt (she/her) and Tex Jensen (they/them, he/him), who both have felt alienated.

For a great part of their lives, they have felt excluded from the ordinary society – almost as if they were a different species living in a parallel world. Amalie and Tex have spent their youth navigating the psychiatric system: Being hospitalized, feeling a loss of humanity by being labeled by a diagnosis and feeling their lives at a standstill, while their friends lived on.

The Open Forum starts with Amalie and Tex telling their personal stories. Participants are invited to contribute with their own experiences with a life of vulnerability or to share their thoughts.

Participation is free.

Open Forum is a democratic way of conversation and is open to everyone. The conversations will be in English.

The event is part of the museum’s youth project ‘UNG-i-dag’ sponsored by Region Midt and Nordea-Fonden.

From late August to September, 20 people aged 18-30 will get a special opportunity to let their creativity run wild in a three-part workshop. During this workshop, they will create props for the upcoming theatre show: The sound from one hell of a dreamer – a show about Ovartaci.
The objective for the workshop is to create friendships and promote well-being through creative activities. The workshop will end with all 20 participants having the honour of watching the final test show before the premiere.

The workshop is part of the project Regionale Kulturkammerater.

K7 Week is a nationwide week of culture for young people under 27. From September 9 to 15 anyone under the age of 27 can, free of charge, visit more than 200 museums and exhibitions all over the country.
At Museum Ovartaci we have gone one step further. We have free admission to the museum for everyone under 27 until May 17, 2025*.

*NOT for groups or schools.

Writing workshop

During K7 week the youth council at the museum will host a special writing workshop September 12 from 16-18. The workshop will test your abilities with free-flowing processes, focusing on the written word in a text that opens to deeper conversations and understandings. Previous experience is not a must, and you can write as weird or broken as you want. Pencil, paper, and coffee will be provided. All you need to do is show up willing to share and write your feelings.

It is a freeing experience where you can get to know yourself and others a little better. The specific topic and date will be announced later.

To kick off the festivities, we have the grand opening of a new temporary exhibition on September 26. The new exhibition called “Batshit” focuses on lesser-known artworks by Ovartaci – works of art that are different to the ones we normally see by Ovartaci.
Curator of the exhibition is the Danish artist Uffe Issolotto. Isolotto is known for his works centred on the self-absorbed human and challenges our minds on what is and what is not human. Some may remember Isolotto from the Venice Biennale in 2022 where he decorated the Danish pavilion with the installation “We walked the Earth”, which was later available in Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen.

The exhibition  BATSHIT can be experienced at Museum Ovartaci from September 26 until January 2025.

From the beginning of October, you can experience a special theatre performance right in the middle of the permanent exhibition. The theatre troupe “HURRA” and musician Lise Dres are currently working on the upcoming show “The sound from one hell of a dreamer – A show about Ovartaci”. The show takes the audience on a poetic journey through Ovartaci’s artistic universe. The life of the universe comes from the actors’ movements and the sounds, all accompanied by music by Lise Dres.

From the middle of October yet another theatre show opens called “The mind is a butterfly”. Inspired by Ovartaci’s life, Syddjurs Egnsteater and Teater Hakkehuset in collaboration with Museum Ovartaci, invite you to join the poetic story which journeys through the imaginary world and the many layers of the mind. In the show, transitions and transformations unfold before our very eyes in a beautiful world, where nothing is impossible.
The show will play in the ballroom in the old psychiatric hospital in Risskov, Kulturhotellet in Rønde and KomBi in Hornslet.

A special Ovartaci exhibition opens on October 7 at Maltfabrikken in Ebeltoft. The exhibition celebrates the anniversary of Ovartaci and can be enjoyed independently or as an extension of the special exhibition BATSHIT. This grants the viewer a special opportunity to experience Ovartaci on his “home turf”.
At Museum Ovartaci we look forward to showcasing Ovartaci’s art in the most fabulous setting in Maltfabrikken.

In the beginning of July, the Children’s atelier was full of action and fun during a 3-day workshop for kids. The amazing kids spent the first week of their summer vacation creating new friendships through a creative collaboration with each other. The creative output consisted of cups made from papier mâché, cakes made of foam and sand putty, imaginary animals inspired by the exhibition, action-painting on Vestereng, and stick humans made from leftover yarn and sticks.
The workshop ended with a small exhibition where parents, siblings, and grandparents had the pleasure of experiencing the wonderful creations.

In June Museum Ovartaci sent two of our most skilled creative teachers on a trip to Florence. Together with other teachers from Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Lithuania they spent the week working with art in practical and theoretical forms on how it can help improve our well-being. Meeting other teachers from all over Europe was a great opportunity for sharing valuable knowledge.

During the week the entire team presented a play and visited AD’A (Accademia D’arte Firenze), which was both brilliantly interesting and inspiring.

The trip was funded by the Erasmus+ and part of the Teachers Academy.

Members of Friends of Museum Ovartaci help ensure the continued existence of the museum and help make a difference by eliminating prejudices and create an understanding of mental illness through art and history of art.

In other words: Museum Ovartaci needs you!

As a member of Friends of Museum Ovartaci you get special benefits. You will be invited to events, openings, pre-views, special friend-events and a discount to selected events. Furthermore, a membership in Museum Ovartaci’s Friends grants free admission to the museum. Membership price 225 DKK per year.
Sign up and become a part of Museum Ovartaci’s Friends by following the link below.

Den 3. september kl. 16-18 inviterer Museum Ovartaci atter til Open Forum under overskriften Beyond diagnosis. Deltagelse i Open Forum er gratis og kræver ingen tilmelding.

Dagens samtale facilitatorer er Amalie Schmidt (hun/hende) og Tex Jensen (de/dem, han/ham). Begge har de oplevet at føle sig fremmedgjorte.

I en stor del af deres liv har de følt sig udelukket fra det almindelige samfund - næsten som om de var en anden art, der levede parallelle liv. Amalie og Tex har nemlig måttet bruge deres ungdom på at navigere i det psykiatriske system: At være indlagt, mærke et tab af menneskelighed ved at blive stemplet af en diagnose og mærke deres liv gå i stå, mens jævnaldrende levede videre.

Den 3. september åbner Amalie og Tex dagens åbne dialog med deres personlige fortællinger, hvortil alle kan bidrag med egne oplevelser og erfaringer med et liv med sårbarhed eller blot dele sine tanker om stort eller småt, der falde ind i dagens dialog.

Open Forum er et demokratisk samtaleformat, hvor dialogen er åben for alle. Samtalen foregår på engelsk, så alle kan være med, også hvis man ikke har helt styr på det danske sprog endnu.

Arrangementet er en del af museets ungeprojekt UNG i dag, som er støttet af Region Midt og Nordea-fonden.