What do angels and working life have to do with each other? CC presents a new show by one of the fastest rising stars of the Danish art scene.

Hannah Toticki
Storage of the Gods
13 October 2023 – 1 April 2024

Download press material here: https://copenhagencontemporary.org/en/press

A press preview will be held on 11 October at 11:00, with a welcome by CC’s director Marie Laurberg and an introduction by the artist.

For registration and interview requests, please contact ida@cphco.org

In October, the Danish artist Hannah Toticki will open her biggest exhibition to date in Scandinavia. Made specifically for Copenhagen Contemporary, Storage of the Gods earnestly and humorously wrestles with the great questions of life in an age with no shared sense of sacredness. Featuring guardian angels, archived dreams and contributions from more than 300 people, Storage of the Gods opens up a dialogue about how people today are individually responsible for creating meaning in the absence of a divinity greater than ourselves.

The Western philosophical tradition has long declared that God is dead. In Storage of the Gods, Hannah Toticki looks at the void left behind by religious traditions and rituals in today’s world. The exhibition takes the pulse of absence and longing in three different zones exploring conceptions of the divine.

The first zone features a collection of wings belonging to guardian angels we are missing. They are based on testimonials by more than 300 people describing the guardian angels they already have or wish they had. In our busy day-to-day lives do we miss something divine, something bigger than ourselves?

In a collected archive, visitors can read about the different angels, including The Guardian Angel of Housework, The Guardian Angel of the Socially Awkward, The Guardian Angel of the Night Sky, The Guardian Angel of My Niece with an Eating Disorder and many others. Visitors are also invited to contribute their own text about the guardian angel they are missing.

The second zone of Storage of the Gods presents a collection of archived dreams manifested in the form of humanoid clay figures. Sleeping on piles of dirt, the figures embody the link between the human and the divine that dreams have formed throughout history.

The final zone is a storehouse for an assortment of crowns. Historically, crowns have been worn by rulers to symbolize a direct connection to the divine. Bearing titles like Ruler of the Nervous System, Ruler of Performance and Ruler of Tides, the crowns here point to an altogether different truth: that, at the end of the day, we are just people.

The big questions of life are left to the individual
A key theme in Toticki’s art is the meaning of working life. The artist examines the role of work as a collective and ethical obligation, especially as a creator of identity and meaning in the life of the individual. Work is probably the closest thing in late modern society to an institution that fills the role of religion. Meanwhile, more people than ever before – especially the young – are struggling with stress, anxiety and depression.

With the diminishing presence of religion in society, the big questions of life are left to the individual. In Storage of the Gods, Toticki has created a unique landscape of works sparking all-too-rare conversations that insist on situating the individual within a community.

About Hannah Toticki
Hannah Toticki (b. 1984) is a 2016 graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She has exhibited in Denmark and abroad, including solo exhibitions at EMST in Athens in 2023 and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) in 2021. Toticki is the recipient of the 2018 Astrid Noack Grant, the 2016 StartPoint Prize at the National Gallery of Prague and a 2018 Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Talent Award. In 2022, she received a three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.

For more information about the exhibition:
Janna Lund, Head of Administration & Senior Curator
janna@cphco.org
+45 2091 3199

Press Contact:
Ida Maj Ludvigsen, Head of PR & Communication
ida@cphco.org
+45 6021 9321

In 2023 Copenhagen Contemporary is supported by:
Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, Augustinusfonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Beckett-Fonden, Bikubenfonden, Det Obelske Familiefond, A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal, 15. Juni Fonden, Kulturministeriet, Københavns Kommune, Statens Kunstfond, Carlsbergs Mindelegat for Brygger J.C. Jacobsen, Frame Finland, Goethe-Institut Dänemark, U.S. Embassy in Denmark, William Demant Fonden, Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond, Koda Kultur, Politiken Fonden, Foreningen Roskilde Festival, Refshaleøens Ejendomsselskab, Fredericia Furniture, Dinesen, Carhartt WIP