The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded more than DKK 29 million for art and art history research in its annual round of grants. One grant will support a project by Christina Ntanovasili of Aarhus University, who will examine how human exploration of space is reflected in art.

On 31 May, at the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s annual Art Award Celebration, recipients of the Mads Øvlisen PhD and postdoctoral fellowships and Investigator Grants presented their projects within art history and practice-based art research.

Art historian Niels Henriksen presented his upcoming project at the National Gallery of Denmark, where he will examine Asger Jorn’s illustrated books on prehistoric and medieval art and his “archaeology” as an artistic method.

In another art history project, PhD student Christina Ntanovasili will examine how human exploration of space is reflected in modern and contemporary art as cosmological themes.

Among the practice-based research projects, renowned artist Lea Porsager presented her upcoming postdoctoral project OUTRAGEOUS INTIMACY [Spooky Touch at a Distance], which focuses on energy in relation to climate, politics and economics. Lea Porsager will collaborate with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and others.

Presentation of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Practice-based Art Studies
During the Novo Nordisk Foundation Art Award Celebration, Professor and Center Director Mikkel Bogh also gave an introduction to the new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Practice-based Art Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

The Center will create opportunities for research collaboration and networking across educational and art institutions, thereby providing a framework for courses and the exchange of ideas between PhD students in this field.

“The Novo Nordisk Foundation is very proud to contribute to giving excellent and talented researchers such as this year’s grant recipients the opportunity to carry out their projects. We are also delighted that the new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Practice-based Art Studies will provide researchers with a new place to meet colleagues and share inspiration and experience,” says Berith Bjørnholm, Senior Vice President for Education and Outreach and head of the art and art history area at the Foundation.

The Foundation has awarded a total of 16 grants for DKK 29.8 million, comprising nine Mads Øvlisen research scholarships and fellowships, two Investigator Grants, four art history research projects and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Visiting Professorship in Art & Art History.

The Foundation received 78 applications for these grants, which have been awarded to researchers and artists from Denmark and other countries who contribute to strengthening Denmark’s art research communities.

The Committee on Research in Art and Art History, comprising renowned art and art history researchers from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, assesses the applications received.

Grants within art research and art history in 2023

Mads Øvlisen PhD scholarships for art history research

• Christina Ntanovasili, Aarhus University, DKK 1,997,910, Aesthetics of Posthuman Evolution: Tracing the Posthuman in Constellations of Art and Astroculture 1900–
• Oliver Wiant Rømer Holme, University of Copenhagen, DKK 2 million, Mellem solidaritet og afmagt: Mellemkrigstidens sociale kunst i Danmark [Between Solidarity and Impotence: Social Art of the Interwar Period in Denmark]

Mads Øvlisen PhD scholarships for practice-based research

• Amalie Eibye Brandt, Aarhus University and Art Hub Copenhagen, DKK 1,992,660, The Exhibitionary Complex in the Age of Transparency
• Asker Bryld Staunæs, Aarhus University and Kunsthal Aarhus, DKK 1,971,165, Automatic Uprisings: Archiving a Techno-Social Sculpture

Mads Øvlisen postdoctoral fellowships for art history research

• Lise Hindsberg, University of Copenhagen, DKK 1.5 million, At se med øjne og ører: Synergien mellem billeder og sang i illuminerede koralmanuskripter, ca. 1450–1550 [Seeing with Eyes and Ears: Synergy between Images and Song in Illuminated Choral Manuscripts, 1450–1550]
• Niels Henriksen, National Gallery of Denmark, DKK 1,499,724, Vandalisme mod kronologien: Asger Jorns “arkæologi” i teori og praksis [Vandalism against Chronology: Asger Jorn’s “Archaeology” in Theory and Practice]

Mads Øvlisen postdoctoral fellowship for practice-based research

• Lea Porsager, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Visual Arts, DKK 1,422,487, OUTRAGEOUS INTIMACY [Spooky Touch at a Distance]
• Marie Kølbæk Iversen, National Gallery of Denmark, DKK 1.5 million, Fælledfuturisme | Futurities of the Commons

Mads Øvlisen postdoctoral fellowship for art and natural sciences

• Mads Heilskov, Aarhus University, DKK 1,493,525, Natura Artifex: a New Ecological Approach to the Production and Perception of Art in the Middle Ages, 1200–1500 CE

Investigator Grants in art history research

• Kasper Opstrup Frederiksen, University of Copenhagen, DKK 4 million, Twisting the Fabric of Space: on the Art and Politics of the Hidden
• Sabine Dahl Nielsen, University of Copenhagen, DKK 4 million, Transkulturelle kontaktzoner: En undersøgelse af kunstinstitutionernes kulturelle pluralisering i samtidens migrationsprægede samfund [Transcultural Contact Zones: a Study of the Cultural Pluralisation of Art Institutions in Contemporary Societies Characterised by Migration]

Project grants on art and art history research

• Gertrud Jenny Schack With, Municipality of Lyngby-Taarbæk, DKK 555,641, Friederike Bruns Store Album og dets relation til begrebet kunstnerstambøger samt til venskabs- og salonkulturen i ind- og udland 1750–1820 [Friederike Brun’s Album and Its Relationship to the Concept of Artist Pedigrees and to Friendship and Salon Culture at Home and Abroad, 1750–1820]
• Matthias Wivel, National Gallery of Denmark, DKK 1,124,378, Kirsten Justesen – en onlineregistrant over en billedhuggers arbejde [Kirsten Justesen – an Online Registrant of a Sculptor’s Work]
• Sofie Bastiansen, Faaborg Museum, DKK 289,000, Kai Nielsen – Krop, Humor, Myter og Sport (arbejdstitel) [Kai Nielsen – Body, Humour, Myths and Sport (working title)]
• Tanya Ravn Ag, University of Copenhagen, DKK 1,030,981, Algorithms in Art: Displacements in Danish Art with Algorithmic Culture since 1990

Novo Nordisk Foundation Visiting Professorship in Art & Art History

• Gunhild Borggreen, University of Copenhagen, DKK 1.5 million, Asato Ikeda: Japanese Art History and Visual Culture