 is part interactive website, part public sculpture, part video installation, and was first presented in the exhibition 

at Copenhagen Contemporary art centre in 2023. The artwork is inspired by the 

, a ‘map of tenderness’ created by French writer Madeleine de Scudéry and her group of friends in 1653–54, which soon after appeared as an engraving in Scudéry’s novel 

 depicted a bird’s-eye view of an allegorical landscape with features named for different emotions. It was made at a time when the author and her circle were tackling quite radical questions of self-determination, women’s rights, and how an individual’s interiority can have consequences for society at large. The river running through the 

 follows the outlines of a uterus, further linking the psycho-geographic map to the female body as a site of journey and reflection.

you are immediately invited to answer this question: ‘What do you want the future to remember?’. 

Each person can type a response in a text-input field, with the option to include their name and/or location. After submitting their memory, the user is taken to a colourful adaptation of the 

: its original borders stretch outwards in an elaborate digital patchwork of saturated marks whose patterns riff on the central landscape motifs. When one zooms out, the map’s uneven edges evoke a tiled collage and suggest that its construction could still continue. Zooming out even further triggers a shift from a flat view to the same map wrapped like a skin around a 3D digital object.


The object is a sculptural interpretation of the hippocampus, the part of the human brain that stores memories. In its formal ambiguity, the object also feels suggestive of a back-bending female figure, or a model of the human clitoris organ, creating a rhyme with the shape and association of the 

’s uterus-like river. 

When the user zooms back in, word tags, in English, are visible across the flat map, tying different locations to different emotions, as Scudéry’s cohort did centuries ago. A second question unfurls across the screen: ‘If your memory was found in the future, how do you think it would make the future feel?’ The user is then prompted to place their statement on the map, effectively attaching it to one or more emotions and contributing to the collective 

. By merging them into one, it proposes that the future, which is always already entangled in the past, carries with it obligations and responsibilities. The English word 

 refers to ‘something that is one’s duty or responsibility’ and is often culturally understood with a negative valence. In an individualist society, 

 can suggest obligations that diminish one’s personal freedom and, as such, one’s future. 

However, in a more collective-minded framework, freedom is not always freedom from obligations and relations, but something that assumes that individuals and communities flourish through interdependence. 

 is an attempt to reclaim our shared onus as a privilege that unfolds from the present into the future. The stories we assign to words, like maps, orient our worldviews.

 to place their memories for the future, the cumulative meshwork of collective memories gives further shape to the dynamic map, which stands as a metaphor for future directions, movements, and response-ability. 

As contributors place their memories on the map, they imagine how future others might come to feel about each memory. A new space is opened up – a space for questions and reflections about what and which kind of future the user attributes their memory to. By building on these collective reflections, users are prompted to imagine other futures, and perhaps also actions that could be taken today to achieve those possibilities.

"The Cognitive Neuroscience of Constructive Memory"

 

Interview with Helene Nymann by Stine Lundberg Hansen in Art Matter, 

Helene Nymann: "Den viden, der kommer ud af kunst, er reel viden"

Carte de ContinOnus is an interactive artwork consisting of a sculptural video installation, three public sculptures placed in different locations and an interactive website

Carte de ContinuOnus 

The multi-faceted artwork is part interactive website, part public sculpture, part video installation, and was first presented in the exhibition 

at Copenhagen Contemporary art centre in 2023.



was supported by: 
Bikubenfonden – Udstillingsprisen Vision, Det Obelske Familiefond, Carlsbergs Mindelegat for Brygger J.C. Jacobsen, Statens Kunstfond, Frame Finland, Goethe-Institut Dänemark, The Embassy of the United States of America in Denmark, Københavns Kommune – Kultur- og Fritidsudvalget, William Demant Fonden, Koda Kultur

 (2023) is projected onto a semi-transparent, freestanding scrim in the centre of a darkened gallery space, the video opens with a scanning view of 

 and is backed by a soft, rhythmic piano instrumental. After a moment, a soothing, disembodied female voice begins to tell the story of the 

’s origins. She then makes a call: ‘The time has come to create another collective map. A map visualising what we in the present remember that we want the future to remember. An attempt to intentionally leave traces that might move those who come after. As an act of our love. 

The voiceover continues over a dreamy interweaving of nonlinear, associative imagery: close-up views of mnemonic knots, a slow pan of vegetal roots in soil, the scene of a woman caressing a soft cloth, which is perhaps an object that holds a personal memory. Some short scenes are sampled from the internet, some are family footage, while others are staged in seemingly floating spaces. A few principle characters rotate in and out of the frame, and the video ends with a view zooming out from Helene’s expanded 

The sculptural component of the project, titled 

 (2023), is the same 3D digital form from the website represented in real space, this time made of wood, polystyrene, and acrylic plaster and painted with a deep pink sheen. 

The hippocampus is the part of the human brain that controls not only one’s long-term and spatial memory, but also one’s ability to make new memories and envision things. During the exhibition 

, three editions of the sculpture were placed on plinths in three different locations: in the foyer of Copenhagen Contemporary art centre, in front of the Niels Bohr Institute, and at Ofelia Plads, which is a busy tourist site at Copenhagen harbour. On the front of each plinth stood the question, ‘What do you want the future to remember?’ Below it was a QR code that led viewers to a 

 where the same question appeared, now with the option to type a response and engage with 

. 

The hippocampus also controls spatial orientation. Placement of the sculptures in multiple sites meant that the responses collected from people would be inflected by their different contexts. Helene made the sculptures identical so they would seem as one sculpture traveling across the city. And while they all led to one website that could itself be considered placeless, they emphasised situatedness by all feeding that one map; rather than representing one place, the map is entered and constructed from many specific localities and perspectives.

was a combined research and exhibition project which featured artworks both presented at Copenhagen Contemporary and in the urban spaces across Copenhagen. Overall the artworks explored the concept of movement. 

For a period of two years the artists involved in the exhibition worked with research institutions from around the world to create their artworks. The works all unfolded ways to uncover the theme of movement and motion as an ever-present phenomenon. As such, the artworks explored ways to make us aware of the complex and multi-faceted movement patterns we are intertwined in. Everything is moving all the time – with us and around us. 

The artworks were exhibited at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2023 in the group exhibition 

The exhibiting artists were Ryoji Ikeda, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Jenna Sutela, Ligia Bouton, Helene Nymann, Nina Nowak, Jens Settergren, Black Quantum Futurism, Cecilia Bengolea and Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm. 

was curated in collaboration with external curator Irene Campolmi.

More information on 



Interview with Helene Nymann by Stine Lundberg Hansen in Art Matter, 

Future de ContinusOnus

What does a knot tied hundreds of years ago tell us? In the act of remembering and forgetting, what part does the body play? What does it mean that our bodies are plastic and that we therefore can change our patterns of thought and behavior throughout life? And how do we access the many layers that comprise the mechanisms of memory? These questions – and many more – form the basis for the solo exhibition 

 (Mesh Mother) (2022)
10:42 min HD video loop installation with sound, dimensions variable



 (2022)
Glas, steel, soil, waxed string with pigment, memories, imaginings



Cinematographer: Troels Rasmus Jensen DFF
Gaffer: Philip Sacht
Composer and Musician: Jeppe Brix
Dancers: Alma Toaspern, Hazuki Kajima, Jens Brøndum
Creative Consultant: Nadia Donnerborg
Post Production Coordinator: Bacon Production, Louise Ryge
Producer: The Lab, Emil Eskesen
Digital Post Production: Nordisk Film Shortcut
In-House Post Producer: Maggie Winther Hansen
Colorist: Nordisk Film Shortcut, Olesya Kireeva



Anders Raad Glass: Anders Raad
Holmegaard Glasværk
Glassblowers: Jonas Nöel Niedermann, Iben Kielberg, Peer Nielsen, Pierre Roger Ondongo, Lean Pedersen
Steel: Frank Jensen, Alvilde Holm



Professor: Head of Department, Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Andreas Roepstorff
Neuroscientist and Teacher of Microphenomenology: Karin Heimann
Writer: Siri Hustvedt
Cultural Anthropologist, Scientist: Joe Dumit
Curator at The Danish National Museum: Anne-Mette Marchen Andersen

Special thanks to choreographer and dancer, Tim Matiakis, Statens Værksteder for Kunst, O–Overgaden, family and friends, everyone who visited the exhibition and tied a knot

The exhibition

was supported by: 
Arne V. Schlesch's Foundation, Danish Arts Foundation, Beckett-Fonden and Novo Nordisk Foundation

(Mesh Mother) three bodies are interwoven in knotty postures, just as in the Scandinavian schoolyard game Kluddermor (which can be translated as messy mother or mesh-mother). The movements are inspired by the khipu, an ancient memory tool consisting of a chain-shaped system of knotted strings used by the Incas. Some scholars believe that these knots worked as a counting system, while others perceive the knots as three-dimensional writing—an accumulation of knowledge and stories. Projected onto a semitransparent screen the video entangles itself with the room and the viewer.

 consists of handblown glass-containers, which are placed on a bed of soil. They draw ties with the khipu knot, an ancient Incan memory tool composed of knotted and colored strings. While some view the khipu as a counting device, others regard it as a form of three-dimensional writing – an accumulation of knowledge and stories. The title ‘Eidolons’, meaning phantoms or spirit images, encapsulates the work’s exploration of memory as a portal to all temporalities and perspectives simultaneously.

The knot shape also gives associations and is inspired by the sea slug Aplysia Californica, a tiny mollusk that through neurological studies have contributed to the detection of how human beings register and form memories in our nervous system through external stimuli.

With 

, Nymann invites the viewer to physically tie a knot of their own, choosing what they wish to remember thereby contributing to a collective memory and a future Eidolon altogether. Thereby, the exhibition encourages us to think about how we, as individuals remember, but also forget, and what we as a society leave behind for the ones who come after. 

The publication "Knots of Ecphore" was published by O–Overgaden on the occasion of the exhibition. 

A readable version of the publication can be found here.

Knots of Ecphore reflects our present western linear approach to knowledge, language and memory, and also the systematic absence of the body when it comes to remembering

Knots of Ecphore 

 was created as part of the public art decoration in the Nørreport neighborhood in Aabenraa. In 2022 the Nørreport neighborhood was reshaped as an art destination with works by contemporary artists. 

The public art decoration was developed by Aabenraa Kommune in collaboration with Creator Projects, ambassadors from the neighborhood and the Arts Council of Aabenraa Kommune. The art decoration is funded by Danish Arts Foundation, Den Jyske Kunstfond, BHJ Fonden and Aabenraa Kommune’s Art Council.

(2022)
Copper organ pibes, aluminium, LED, LED-driver, fan, sensor



Organ builder: Marcussen & Søn
LED and programming: Studio Temporal

is a sculptural and interactive sound piece that is installed in a passageway. Copper organ pibes are placed in the passageway where they are illuminated by light. The pibes are activated through a sensor, which registers the coming and going off people through the passageway.


Once a certain amount of people have walked through, the chorus of 

by John Lennon sounds from the work throughout the passageway.

draws on both historical instruments and contemporary technologies – and insists on dialogue with the people encountering the sound piece in the humdrum of everyday life. 

The song 

hints at the time for the creation of the art work during a time with war in Ukraine as well as the historical backdrop of the city and region in which it is placed – a region that has been the center for many battles over the drawing of the border between Denmark and Germany.


In the future other composers can be invited to create melodies for the sound piece. Thus, the work is open for change and collaboration on various levels and thereby it investigates how we create collective memories and how we imagine the future.

More information on the public art decoration can be found 

. 

Participating artists: Rune Bosse, Silas Inoue, Oskar Koliander, Mathias & Mathias, Helene Nymann, Torben Ribe, Studio ThinkingHand og VINYL - TERROR & -HORROR.

AabenraaOrgan 

 (2022), are based on Nymann's studies of mnemonic techniques and genetic dynamics throughout history. Together, the sculptures and video engage in reflections on the relationship between genetics and memory, heritage and environment, past and future.

The artworks were created for the group exhibition 

Museum for Fremtiden / Museum for the Future 

– a visual arts exhibition and a theatre performance all at once, in which visitors become actors. The exhibition and theatre performance included artworks by Helene Nymann, Ferdinand Ahm Krag and Studio ThinkingHand and was curated by Anders Thrue Djurslev with text by Christian Lollike. 



(2022)
HD video, 10:47 min loop with sound, dimension variable



(2022)
164 x 158 x 72
Sand, paint metal, polystyrene, marble balls



(2022)
164 x 60 x 55
Sand, paint, metal, polystyrene, marble balls




Cinematographer: Troels Rasmus Jensen, DFF
Colorist: Olesya Kireeva
Gaffer: Malik Thomas
Performers: Dorte Bjerre Jensen, Elijah Nagady, Kasper Jensen, Pierre Enaux, Snore Elvin
Styling and set-design: Nanna Rosenfeldt-Olsen
Costume: Prisca Vilsbol
Digital Post Production: Nordisk Film Shortcut
In-house Post Producer: Maggie Winther Hansen



was supported by: 
Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, Aarhus Kommune, A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til Almene Formaal, Augustinus Fonden, Bikubenfonden, Det Obelske Familiefond, Knud Højgaards Fond, New Carlsberg Foundation, Novo Nordisk, The Arts Council of Denmark and William Demant Fonden

, video, sculpture and an invitation to sing is gathered in a quest to dream forth new landscapes – both inner and outer, human and more than human. The works are inspired the theory of the biologist C.H. Waddington (1905-1975) who laid the ground for epigenetics and evolutionary developmental biology. 

 follows his vision of the creode, a neologistic portmanteau coined by Waddington to represent the developmental pathway followed by a cell as it grows to form part of a specialized organ. 

In this metamorphic vision, Waddington asks us to imagine a number of marble balls rolling down a hill and how the marbles will affect the grooves on the slope, and come to rest at the lowest points. These points represent the eventual fate of the different cells, showing us the cellular developmental process. Emphasizing that evolution mainly occur through mutations that affect developmental anatomy.

 (2022), with its dreamlike logic, insist that our ability to associate naturally create temporal correspondences. A cultural transmission chain that invite the viewer to sing. The installation invites the visitor to move around in the space, joining the spinning sculptures all awhile the video work tells its surreal story of mankind only to be broken up by an archival song of movement, mutation and imaginings. 

The two sculptural works, 

 (2022) invite us on a journey of mutated chromosomes suspended in time and space. Magnified in size, these sculptures call forth our imaginative and speculative abilities. For if we were giving birth to a new tomorrow, what mutated future would we wish for? 


Ode to Creode (2022). Stills from video work

presented alternatives to the sinister visions of the future which permeates our present time as it is faced with the doom of climate crisis. 

brought forth different ways to let ourselves reimagine our relationship with not only ourselves but also our age and place in history. 

The works reached back to primeval times, interventions with the processes of human biology and demonstrated that humanity is deeply connected and intertwined with other organisms and life forms. Thus, the exhibition and the artworks challenged some of those fundamental values that structure how we perceive time and history, past and present and future. 

was exhibited at Sort/Hvid Theatre in Copenhagen and Kunsthal Aarhus in collaboration with Aarhus Theatre. 

Read more about the exhibition at 

. 

Artists: Helene Nymann, Ferdinand Ahm Krag, Studio ThinkingHand
Text and production:

Christian Lollike
Dramaturge and curator: Anders Thrue Djurslev
Light design: Morten Kolbak
Sound design: Asger Kudahl

The publication "Museum for Fremtiden / Museum of the Future" was published by Antipyrine on the occasion of the exhibition. 

A readable version of the conversation between Anders Thrue Djurslev and Helene Nymann to be found here.

Ode to Creode presents an exploration of the correlations between mnemonic techniques and genetic dynamics as both have evolved throughout cultural history

Ode to Creode

In Selva of Selves (S.O.S) we journey down through a liquid substance and encounter the sea-slug and famous laboratory animal, Aplysia Californica. 



(2019)
Video-animation, 05:00 min loop with sound, dimensions variable



Animation artist: Lasse Smith
Sound: Jeppe Brix

Used in scientific tests, Aplysia Californica, has helped pave the way for a deeper understanding of how human memories are created, supplying new information about memory storage, plasticity and even memory transfer. The special combination of the sea-slug’s simple nervous system, extraordinarily large sized neurons as well as its fascinating self-defense mechanism – a fuchsia-colored chemical liquid – makes it a powerful organism for us to learn from and with.

Selva of Selves (SoS) (2019). Stills from video

 we make a shift in perspective, as we in an almost Alice in Wonderland like fashion, disappear down through the opening of the slug’s siphon, arriving deep inside its pulsating nervous system. Thus, in a merge between art and neuroscience, the work opens up to a third space of perspective possibilities. A space of co-evolutionary imaginings and a space on the erogenous limits of perception and cognition.

Selva of Selves (S.O.S)

 flow between pasts and futures of the development of memory-techniques and is inspired by the Italian philosopher, poet, and cosmologist Giordano Bruno. The exhibition consists of a video work and sculptures. 



Aom Aom, your body in my room – Study of the hippocampus 

(2017)
Polystyrene, metal, white paint
210 m x 150 m x 190 m



 (2017)
11:20 min video loop with sound, single-channel video projection, dimensions variable

Memory Wheels (2019)


BE LUCK – Bruno’s Endless Love to a Universe of Circular Knowledge 


Metal, beeswax, red pigment, cyber chrome 
90 cm x 5 cm


– Aby Warburg Arranges a World of Empathy 


Metal, beeswax, green pigment, cyber chrome 
90 cm x 5 cm


M9MEMM – Mnemosyne and the Nine Muses Entranced in Mnemonic Meditations


Metal, beeswax, purple, cyber chrome 
90 cm x5 cm


TOTHM – Tip of my Tongue to Henry Molaison 


Metal, beeswax, blue pigment, cyber chrome 
90 cm x 5 cm



Metal, beeswax, white pigment, cyber chrome 
90 cm x 5 cm




Animation: Adam Ryde Ankerfeldt & Magnus Pind Bjerre
Cinematographer: Troels Rasmus Jensen
Colorgrade: Olesya Kireeva, Act3
Sound: Jeppe Brix 
Set-Design: Anne Mette Fisker Langkjer 

The exhibition

was supported by: 
Danish Arts Foundation, Aarhus Kommune, Det Obelske Familiefond, IMC – Interacting Minds Centre, Kjærgaard Anlægsgartner and Novo Nordisk Foundation

Today, large parts of our memory are externalized into various digital storage channels and images flow at high speeds through our perception, only fleetingly scratching the surface of our minds. Our memory is continuously challenged by new technologies and as we have come to trust their functions, we simultaneously abandon our own ability to remember. 


 thus offers insights into methods of remembering and speculations on memory and consciousness through new readings of ancient knowledge and memory systems as a way to remember a more sustainable future. The exhibition flows between past and future ways of learning and the speaks about the fragile state of memory – and of ways to activate the potential of remembering in a technological world. 

The publication "Ars Memoria – Memes for Imagination" was published by Really Simple Syndication Press on the occasion of the exhibition. 

 has been exhibited at New Museum in New York in 2019 as part of their 

 was organized by Helga Christoffersen, Associate Curator, and presents new video works by emerging artists. Read more about 

Ars Memoria – Memes for Imagination explores the notion of embodied knowledge, memory-systems and experimental forms of receiving and transmitting ideas

Ars Memoria – Memes for Imagination 

 features a classically trained male ballet dancer. The work explores the dance style Butoh, which was created to counter the idea that Japanese culture was still harmonious following the country's devastation and collapse in the Second World War. Or, in other words the dance style and video work offer the important idea – namely that we have the means to shift our perspective.

Butoh is short for Ankoku Butoh, which can be translated into "dance of darkness",  a term used by the founder of the style, Tatsumi Hijikata. The term and dance style refer to the limitation of conscious movement and to the subconscious storage of bodily knowledge. Through the dance style, past experiences, which are stored within the body, can be channeled out as they are stimulated through bodily and cognitive movement. 

For 

, Helene Nymann gave the dance no other instructions than the principes of Butoh. Instead the dancer was asked to translate his own past – his own bodily knowledge – into movement.

By incorporating dance and movement the work investigates how bodily memory is stimulated by textures, physical sensations and interaction. Through sound and movement, 

also explores how memory is created, stored and, crucially, how it can be accessed again. 

has been exhibited at New Museum in New York in 2019 as part of their 

was organized by Helga Christoffersen, Associate Curator, and presents new video works by emerging artists. Read more about 

Whether We Are 

 investigates how the use of archaic imagery and myth may activate our subconscious and thereby induce a more meditative state of mind. 

allows for marble and myth to transcend time and thus offer space for retrospection. 




Video installation HD video 16:9 [07:50 loop]




Medusa: Diana Ø. Tørsløv Møller 
Set-design: Anne Mette Fisker Langkjer 
Sound: Jeppe Brix


 is based on the ancient Greek myth of Medusa – a deadly wounded heroine and potential threat. She has the ability to turn spectators into stone with just a simple look.

In the work Medusa's severed head appears and disappears endlessly. As the image repeatedly comes and goes the work offer ways to question the value and meaning of our collective, Western understanding of this myth. It furthermore questions the image itself and how it is used thereby proposing an a reinterpretation of the power relation between the one looking and the one being looked at. 

With 

, Medusa's power is called into questions as she shifts from being the one looking at others and being looked at. 

has been presented at ARoS in the exhibition 

Mythologies – The Beginning and End of Civilizations 

in 2020. The exhibition featured 70 artworks that dealt with faith, hope, crises and revolution and about how the power of stories has created and changed societies throughout history - from the Greek myths to the present-day welfare state. Read more about the exhibition 

Head On My Dear

Triptych, 3 x silk-laminated c-print mounted on board. C-Print 70 x 90 cm


 (2014)
2 x channel video sculpture 16:9 HDV [10:39 min loop]



(2014)
Video-sculpture. Projection on fuchsia colored fabric. 16:9 HDV [02:23 min loop]



 (2014)
Video-sculpture, 16:9 HDV, (03.23 min loop)

Dancer: Karima Mansour
Set-design: Anne Mette Fisker Langkjer
Sound: Jeppe Brix

Supported by DEDI, with many thanks to all involved and who journeyed along. 

In May 2012 a woman enters an old abandoned colonial hotel next to Tahrir Square. Shelter and battleground, the past and the haunting social forces, where one space transforms another, the wandering from room to room, the looking and being looked at, a revolution and a constant search for what needs to be exorcised in order for it to grow. 



 is a split-screen projection with sound, a screen-work as well as a projection on fuschia-colored fabric. The works are seen as video-sculptures and the immersive sounds emanating from the works encapsulate the viewers as they wander the space, embodying the woman. Thus, as we follow the woman from room to room, the mental and physicality of the space interchange.

Hell Flower 

A publication as part of the "Knots of Ecphore" exhibition first shown at O–Overgaden in 2022. 

Small excerpts from micro-phenomenological interviews with the dancers, glassblower and the artist herself

, Professor of Interdisciplinary Data Collaborations, Professor of Science & Technology Studies and Anthropology, UC Davis

A publication as part of the "Museum for Fremtiden / Museum of the Future" exhibition shown at Teater Sort/Hvid and Kunsthal Aarhus in 2022.  


Udstilling som forestilling, forestilling som udstiling


Fremtidens museer mellem håb og forbandelse


Museet for faldne statuer, willkommen, bienvenue, welcome


Christian Lollike og Anders Thrue Djurslev


A readable version of the conversation between Anders Thrue Djurslev and Helene Nymann to be found here

Museum for Fremtiden / Museum for the Future

A publication as part of the "Ars Memoria – Memes for Imagination" exhibition first shown at Rundetaarn in 2017 and thereafter at Kunsthal Aarhus in 2018. 

The Powers of Recall – What is and What it isn't 

Performer, video artist and psychologist 

Carte de ContinuOnus

Future de ContinusOnus

Knots of Ecphore

AabenraaOrgan

Ode to Creode

Selva of Selves (S.O.S)

Ars Memoria – Memes for Imagination

Whether We Are

Head On My Dear

Hell Flower

Knots of Ecphore

Museum for Fremtiden / Museum for the Future

Ars Memoria / Memes for Imagination