Play Pen Prodigy
Copenhagen, Nikolaj Kunsthal
2025, August
Copenhagen, Nikolaj Kunsthal
2025, August
The exhibition Play Pen Prodigy explores the spaces of childhood and the structures that shape children– physically, mentally and culturally. Taking playpens and playhouses as her starting point, artist Sofie Winther focuses on how norms and values are internalised through education and play.
NAH NAH BOO BOO – once grown up, always grown up. When the frameworks and rules of the adult world emerge from inside the playroom, the ‘familiar’ appears both recognisable and disturbing: like a reverse side that no longer (only) invites play but becomes a reminder of (mass) production and efficiency. In Play Pen Prodigy, sculpture, video, sound, and scent contribute to an overall experience in which the boundaries between home, institution, and imagination begin to blur. The exhibition explores how play often functions as a controlled process – a tool that shapes children into future citizens of society.
Children’s Power – Resistance as a Legacy. The exhibition refers to two Swedish youth films, Fucking Åmål (1998) and Vi är bäst! (“We Are theBest”) (2013). A portrait drawn by artist Allan Lilholt (born 1976, student at Bifrost Art School) depicts the two main characters from Fucking Åmål as they might look today. In a video work, sound artist Joëlle McGovern (b.1993, Australia) performs a cover of the punk song Sex Noll Två, known from Vi är bäst! The lyrics are performed outside McGovern’s native language – the words are distorted, and the “feeling” becomes the main element. The rebellion becomes a lullaby, an echo of something recognisable and a reflection on the transformation of language and emotions.
Exhibtion review: https://kunstkritikk.com/institutionalised/