Copenhagen Contemporary launches new creative laboratory exploring Monster Chetwynd’s fantastical universe

CC Create x Monster Chetwynd
A Feather in your Hat!
13.04.25 - 01.03.26

From 13 April, Copenhagen Contemporary will be transformed into a fanciful universe when they open their doors to a new triennial exhibition and learning project, CC Create – a comprehensive educational initiative at CC with focus on creativity as an inherent trait in all humans. For the first part of the project, the world-renowned British artist Monster Chetwynd has taken over Hall 4 and created an 800-square-metre studio filled with moths, bats, and twisted cat heads. The studio doubles as exhibition space and workshop where Chetwynd’s art sets the stage for audience creativity – across all age groups.

The heart of the gallery is the red hat shop Big Red Hat Shop – a new work created specifically for the A Feather in Your Hat! exhibition: strange faces peer down from the shelves while small hats wait for visitors to try them on. In the many workshops in this room, visitors can create and wear their own hats, step onto the green monstrous stage, and be temporarily transformed into a new persona. The hats can be taken home or be added to the expanding wall of otherworldly headgear.

Traditionally, the ‘monster’ figure instils both fear and fascination. In folklore, films, and art, monstrous creatures are often used to reflect our fears – but equally our desire for transformation. Chetwynd’s exhibition features a gigantic collage floor created specifically for CC and based on extensive research into the cultural history of monsters and their use as performative figures: what happens when we step out of ourselves and into unknown territory? What kind of power lies in putting on a mask – or a hat?

Monster Chetwynd is known for per anarchistic approach to art in which recycled materials, large papier-mâché figures, and theatrical stagings create a humorous, imaginative universe. Per DIY aesthetic often involves the audience as co-creators of the work – always with Chetwynd as the creative master.

Marie Laurberg, director of CC, says:
“I believe in creativity as an inherent force in everyone. A force to be trained and strengthened, something we need more than ever at the present time. Our times call for creativity and innovative power. And I believe that, as an art institution, we play a crucial role here. With CC Create, we engage some of the most creative people of our time to teach us – the artists! The project covers both exhibitions, open workshops for both children and adults, a school for art and strength, workshops for special groups, and school learning programmes in creativity for all age groups. In a bid to offer a new institutional practice for a new era, we proudly present CC Create.”

About CC Create
CC Create is a new universe conceived by Copenhagen Contemporary in 2025. An innovative project in the borderland between art and learning where artists are not only invited to present their art but also their creative process. The project is inspired by the history of the building as a former studio of the Royal Danish Theatre scenic painters – now the large hall is transformed into an artistic laboratory. A place where children and adults alike can play, experiment, and be co-creators of art. Monster Chetwynd is the first in the series of artists and will be opening CC Create with an installation daring the audience to look for monsters – and perhaps discover the hidden monster within themselves in the process.

About Monster Chetwynd
Monster Chetwynd (ze/per, b.1973, London) lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. Chetwynd’s artistic universe draws on anything from pop culture and folklore to surrealistic films and puppet theatre. With a characteristic DIY aesthetic, materials such as papier mâché and recycled clothes are transformed into epic stage designs and costumes, often activated by accompanying performances. Chetwynd creates works that are equally humorous, theatrical, and engaging.

In 2012, Chetwynd was nominated for the Turner Prize and has shown at leading institutions across the world, most recently with the exhibitions Monster & the Nocturnal Pollinators at BMCA Beiqu Museum of Contemporary Art, Nanjing, China (10 August – 17 November 2024) and Moths, Bats and Velvet Worms! Moths, Bats and Heretics! at Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria (7 November 2024 – 9 February 2025). The artist has formerly worked under the names Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, before adopting the name Monster Chetwynd in 2018 – a name now synonymous with boundless creativity and wild imagination.

For more information about the exhibition:
Marie Amalie Skinnebach, Curator
marieamalie@cphco.org
+45 2098 9423

Press Contact:
Mia Becktor, Head of Design
mia@cphco.org
+ 45 2395 0306

The exhibition is supported by:
Nordea Fonden
Spar Nord