The museum at Kilen
Aabenraa Municipality and Museum Sønderjylland are cooperating to turn the plans of a large and modern museum right here where you are standing into reality. The museum will become a meeting place between the guest and the maritime and art history of the border country. In this museum, the outstanding Danish artist, Franciska Clausen, will get the space and attention she deserves just now, when the world has really discovered her importance.
The city is expanding on the harbour
Aabenraa is in the middle of an exciting transformation, using history and art are the central focal points. Here, on the area north of Kilen, Aabenraa Municipality is creating an exciting district around the museum. The district will meet the demand for new attractive homes, cafes and restaurants in the middle of the city and close to the waterfront and forest.
The museum on Kilen will tell a completely different story than the one we otherwise associate with the borderland. Here it is not the wars, the time under German rule and the Reunification with Denmark in 1920 that are in focus. Instead, the new museum will let the guest encounter the Danish-German borderland as a cultural bridge that in Aabenraa gained – and has – a global reach. The exhibitions and the surroundings will set the stage to play, experiences and spend time together across the generations.
Franciska Clausen
No Danish artist has played such a central role for the European avant-garde as Franciska Clausen. Even before she turned 20, she left her childhood town of Aabenraa. While Europe was engulfed in the flames of the First World War, she established ties with what became the art environment of the European avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s.
In Munich, Berlin and Paris, she started as a student of, among others, Lászlo Moholy-Nagy and Fernand Léger, and soon she was an equal colleague with them and with other world-famous artists such as Le Courbusier, Piet Mondrian and Jean Arp.
On behalf of the Foundation for Franciska Clausen's Collections, Museum Sønderjylland houses more than 2,500 of Franciska Clausen's works, in addition to the main works that are in the museum's own possession. She preserved life through an experimental practice, and we create space to show that here.
In the new museum, we offer the public the opportunity to experience a permanent presentation of Franciska Clausen's works. We want to create opportunities for special exhibitions where we can show works by Danish and international artists, and have the opportunity to show their work as part of an innovative international art movement. In short, we want to present Franciska Clausen as the pioneering artist she was.
Final stop for Atelier Europa – a pod walk with Franciska Clausen
If you have used the Atelier Europa pod walk, you have now reached the end of the road.
If you haven't tried the tour yet, we highly recommend it. The pod walk is 2.5 km long and takes 45-60 minutes. It starts at the tourist office at Storegade 30 and is used via the free StoryHunt app and is also available in English.
As a listener, you get an insight into Franciska Clausen's life as a central figure in the vibrant avant-garde art environments of Germany and France. You see "the city as shapes" through her eyes, and you hear about the methods and impressions that she worked with and brought with her to Denmark and Aabenraa as an artist pioneer.
There is no charge, at you can download the app Storyhunt for free
Art destination Nørreport
In 2022, a number of younger Danish contemporary artists were given the task of creating a unique, permanent exhibition of works of art for eight of the city's narrow, medieval passages.
If you follow Kilen towards the center and continue via the stairs up the slope, you will come to the first work.
As inspiration, the artists were introduced to elements of Aabenraa's DNA: Shipping and shipyards, the Danish-German dual culture, great artists, trade, craftsmanship, organ building, town planning, awareness of sustainability and international outlook. The works are part of the urban development plan "Fremtidens Aabenraa".
You can read more about the artists and their works here. (QR:
Gargoyle
https://kunstiaabenraa.dk/skulpturer-i-aabenraa-kommune/sculptures-in-aabenraa-municipality/gargoyle
Strømmen
Archetype
Imagine Possible Trees
μmwelt
oui
https://kunstiaabenraa.dk/skulpturer-i-aabenraa-kommune/sculptures-in-aabenraa-municipality/oui
Kompleks form nr. 1
AabenraaOrgan
Lernen Sie südjütländische Künstler auf Schloss Brundlund kennen
Wir möchten gerne vermitteln, dass einige der berühmtesten dänischen bildenden Künstler ihre Wurzeln im Grenzland haben. Das gilt für Franciska Clausen, aber auch für den Golden-Age-Künstler C.W. Eckersberg, der monumentale Expressionist Svend Wiig Hansen und der Modernist Claus Carstensen. Zur Perlenkette gesellen sich Vertreter jüngerer zeitgenössischer Kunst wie Søren Behncke und Astrid Kruse Jensen sowie Ankäufe aus der Gränseland-Ausstellung, die Franciska Clausen 1971 mit ins Leben rief.
Bis das Museum hier in Kilen fertig ist, können Sie im Schloss Brundlund wechselnde Ausstellungen mit einer Auswahl aus der Sammlung des Museum Sønderjylland mit über 4.000 Werken vom Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart erleben.
Die historische und stimmungsvolle Kulisse von Schloss Brundlund hat seine Wurzeln im 15. Jahrhundert, als Königin Margrethe I. es der Stadt schenkte. Die Kunsterlebnisse setzen sich im Schlosspark fort, zwischen Hecken, deren Form von Franciska Clausens Sprache inspiriert ist. Hier finden Sie in der wunderschönen, grünen Umgebung eine wunderbare Skulpturensammlung und auf der Terrasse des Museumscafés können Sie etwas Gutes genießen.
Informationen zur aktuellen Ausstellung finden Sie hier: https://msj.dk/brundlund-slot/