COPENHAGEN.- A newly discovered Arctic island is floating above the forecourt of KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces in suburban Køge south of Copenhagen. Floating Island is a new work by UK artist Alex Hartley created specifically for the exhibition The Other Place in extension of his renowned project Nowhereisland; a new island nation that travelled around the south west region of England and engaged more than 23.000 people in writing its constitution. The exhibition The Other Place at KØS positions the latest developments in public art at the top of the agenda.

The Other Place presents six key art projects that have revolutionised our understanding of what public art can be, showing its constant evolution in new and surprising directions. The exhibition introduces art projects that over the past decade have conquered new territory and created new and unexpected encounters between the public and contemporary art by involving us in writing the constitution of a new island nation, creating sustainable forms of urban development, and participating in the fictional writing of history. But also, by inviting us to embark on imaginary journeys to other time zones, historical periods, and fictional landscapes.

The international field of public art is developing as never before, and we see art on the streets, at festivals, as a source of sensory input at state institutions, and as a dynamic element of urban regeneration. And debates about its role and significance are as alive as its presence. But what does art bring to the everyday spaces that surround us – spaces we move through, live in and reflect on? And how does it influence us as a society? As Denmark’s only museum dedicated to public art, these are questions KØS has the responsibility and privilege of addressing.

Which is why with The Other Place KØS aims to present some of the answers by offering works that rethinks central factors that play a key role in public art: time, place and participation. Each of the six art projects of The Other Place offer their audiences new artistic realities and rejuvenates the specialised art of creating public art in poetic and pertinent ways, demonstrating the power of art to spark our imaginations and take us to other places. On a journey into the future with Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s Future Library, through shifts in daylight on the oceans of the world in the Danish art duo AVPD’s Light Time, to new fictional landscapes in Icelandic Ragnar Kjartanssons’ Figures in Landscape, and to the extraordinary ‘nowhere’ of Nowhereisland, the brainchild of UK artist Alex Hartley.

Mexican artist Héctor Zamora’s Sciame di dirigibili (‘Zeppelin Swarm’) whirls us into the story of a Zeppelin festival and the writing of history as fiction, whereas Swedish artist Kerstin Bergendal’s PARK LEK demonstrates how the direct involvement of local residents can transform a neighbourhood into a completely different place.

Curated by Ulrikke Neergaard, director KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces