Møstings

Miriam Kongstad: Dawn Comes After Darkness

28. June 2025 - 14. September 2025

In contemporary society, the body is often perceived as a unit that must be optimized and controlled as a condition for a long, successful life. But bodies are driven, at one and the same time, by vulnerability and strength. Our physical and mental health are closely intertwined and influenced by everything around us, from climate, people, and societal structures to diet, materials, and aesthetics. The body is in a constant state of transformation, it ages, falls ill, is affected, and changes character. All of this is Miriam Kongstad’s artistic starting point.

After dusk comes dawn, after darkness comes light, in pain, we seek relief. The title Dawn Comes After Darkness reflects a dynamic approach to the body and to health. The body’s intuitive drive to maintain balance and restore equilibrium is called homeostasis. In the human body, temperature, blood pressure, and fluid balance are automatically regulated by the nervous system and by hormones.

For Kongstad, however, the body is far more than a mechanical, stable system. In her artworks, she focuses on the experience of being a body – of inhabiting it, carrying it, and losing control over it. She explores the intersections between pleasure and pain and the countless contradictory yet coexisting emotions and processes we all hold.

In Dawn Comes After Darkness, the materials take centre stage. They are charged with meaning and symbolism. With surgical precision and poetic force, the exhibition highlights how physical materials affect the body and mind. A materiality that both attracts and disturbs, fascinates and overwhelms, is soft and cool, creating an aesthetic and tactile sensory experience.

Miriam Kongstad (b. 1991, DK) is trained as a choreographer and visual artist from Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin (HZT) and Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, respectively. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Gwangju Biennale (KR), Gl. Holtegaard (DK), Statens Museum for Kunst (DK), Centre Pompidou (FR), and in 2024, she received the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen talent award for sculptors.

The exhibition is made possible thanks to support from Ny Carlsbergfondet, Knud Højgaards Fond, Dansk Tennis Fond, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, Arbejdernes Landsbank, Den Obelske Familiefond, Statens Kunstfond, Statens Værksteder for Kunst, and Frederiksberg Kommune.

The artist extends a special thanks to Anders Toft Pedersen, C. Lavender, Helena Fridan Pedersen, Ida Katinka Fridan Pedersen, Irene Carbonari, Mette Kongstad, Mikkel Holm Torp, and Yan Yan Li.