Critters & Quiet Oddities

Sophia Ioannou Gjerding and Mark Tholander

ODP3, Copenhagen, May 8 - May 29, 2025

Through video, performance, and sculptural objects, visual artist Sophia Ioannou Gjerding (b. 1989) and performance and visual artist Mark Tholander (b. 1988) have created a total installation for the exhibition space of ODP3.

The exhibition invites the audience to reflect on what we perceive as normal and why. Critters & Quiet Oddities revolves around the monstrous and the strange, opening up a playful and compassionate approach to that which we might normally turn away from. Here, critters—odd creatures and beings—are allowed to exist on their own terms. They become symbols of that which we do not understand, yet which is still a part of us.
Ioannou Gjerding and Tholander create an exhibition space where care for our small, inner monsters is allowed to grow—where the frightening becomes something intimate and vulnerable. The exhibition is an exploration of our ideas about identity, community, and belonging, raising a series of questions: What happens if we release our notion of what is normal and instead embrace the foreign and the unknown? Could this open up new communities and ways of living together?

Critters & Quiet Oddities invites reflection on the profound questions of contemporary life, turning attention to and critiquing our current standards of living, which have negative consequences for both the planet and the community around us. As you immerse yourself in creatures and inexplicable objects, you are encouraged to ask yourself a series of questions:

What happens if we dare to completely let go of the idea of normality and instead embrace everything we do not understand? Is it only then that we open up real possibilities for creating new, alternative ways of living, which in the long term could lay the foundation for a more inclusive and sustainable everyday life in the future?

The exhibition is curated by Koffi & Højgaard and generously supported by: The Augustinus Foundation, The Visual Arts Council, Snabslanten, and the Vesterbro Local Committee. Both the exhibition and its associated event program are part of the theater festival CPH Stage and the art festival Art Matter.