'You Are in My Veins', a Group Show at Kunsthal Aarhus

‘You are in my veins, you fuck’: Top model Kate Moss supposedly wrote these words to her ex- boyfriend, musician Pete Doherty. Theirs was a relationship fuelled by a mixture of love, addiction and obsession. You Are in My Veins is now the title of an exhibition of public art placed in the urban landscape of Aarhus, created in collaboration between Kunsthal Aarhus, Galleri Image, Aarhus Centre for Visual Art (AaBKC) & Art Weekend Aarhus.

The duality of desire – at once seductive and stifling – forms the starting point of the exhibition, which permeates the city of Aarhus as an intimate presence. In terms of form, the works presented have drawn inspiration from the fleeting ephemerality, intensity and pathos of music.

You Are in My Veins is curated by Charlotte Sprogøe, who has invited a range of artists from Denmark and abroad to create new works especially for Aarhus. The works range from a theme song, music videos, films and sculptural installations to a performance and concert. Each piece takes its starting point in specific mental states – whether spiritual, psychological or hedonistic – thereby introducing a variety of tones and moods throughout the heart of Aarhus.

Poised between stress and wellness

Aarhus is known as ‘Music City’ and, ever since a highly successful tourism campaign in 1938, as Smilets By – City of Smiles. With its many Michelin-starred restaurants, sidewalk cafes, quaint shops and cobbled Latin Quarter, it constitutes an attractive mini-metropolis, offering plenty of wellness and fun for visitors from near and far. One of this city of music’s distinctive hallmarks is commercial, sleekly produced pop, but experimental alternatives thrive here too, forming a punky underground scene that celebrates chaos.

You Are in My Veins delves into this realm of contrasts, full of the kind of simultaneous attraction and stress found in every European metropolis today. Posited within settings that range from the university city’s extensive nightlife to the spiritual romance of its hidden backyards, from Escape Rooms to psychotherapy clinics, the works on display are located where human emotions, energies and spiritual states are at their most heightened and condensed.

The exhibition begins even before travellers reach Aarhus: the first work is displayed on the screens of the Molslinjen ferry from Zealand. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted by a work created especially for Dokk1, the main highlight of Aarhus’s prestigious new waterfront district. It continues into the downtown Latin Quarter, making a stop at the Women's Museum before plunging further into the Mejlgade neighbourhood, which still retains vestiges of its counter- culture credentials.