THE CISTERNS: WHAT WATER LEAVES BEHIND

SEPTEMBER 16, 2018 

Beneath Søndermarken park lies Copenhagen’s historic water cisterns, once providing the city with 16 million liters of drinking water. Now empty, the labyrinth of collonades form three chambers, and the city uses the space for art exhibitions. I was fascinated that a space that was never meant for human occupation has been adapted for that very purpose. The space is highly sensory, to the point of feeling that you should not be there for too long. The sensation of breathing in a very humid environment feels borderline dangerous, the air thick with the smell of bacteria. It took a solid ten minutes for my eyes to adjust to the crushing darkness, and I half expected to be chased around by a Minotaur. Every sound echoed with deep resonance and you could barely locate its origin. Artist Jeppe Hein amplifies these sensory experiences in his exhibit “In is the Only Way Out”, using restrained light, mirrored discs, and brass bowls as gongs.

The museum is a unique example of not just adaptive reuse, but its requirement for artists to utilize a space that was originally intentioned for water supply and humanize it. This means of transformation is something I’d like to keep in mind going forward - that water leaves traces of space and we can choose how to tell that story.

More on Jeppe Hein’s exhibit here.