In the Presence of Others: Marina Abramović, Laurie Anderson & Miranda July
Nørrebro Teater, April 30, 2026 – May 17, 2026

Nørrebro Teater is proud to present three of the most influential artists of our time – Marina Abramović, Laurie Anderson, and Miranda July – in the theatre’s first major contemporary art exhibition. The group exhibition In the Presence of Others focuses on the artists’ work with sound and will unfold throughout the entire theatre.

The exhibition brings together three of contemporary art’s most distinctive voices in a shared space, exploring themes of belonging, identity, and self-understanding. In the Presence of Others presents a series of associative and imaginative moments that forms a contemporary portrait of how we, as human beings, are constantly in motion in our efforts to understand ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us – how we are always in exchange with each other.

The exhibition features new and existing works and all are exclusively sound-based. While the three artists’ practices and themes overlap in many ways, each artist explores through their own distinct artistic approach.

Laurie Anderson presents the artwork Your Eyes in My Head, a binaural recording of a multichannel piece created specifically for the exhibition.

Marina Abramović’s artworks The Tree and The Airport from 1971 and 1972 respectively originate from a period in which the artist used sound to intervene in space – a practice that later led her to use her own body as the primary medium in her work.

The final major piece, The Drifters by Miranda July, is a series of ten short dialogues created for the Whitney Biennial in 2002. The dialogues construct worlds out of fragments, draw the listener in with humor, and challenge them to fill in the missing pieces.

The exhibition will take over Nørrebro Teater’s foyer, stage, seating areas, corridors, and courtyard, and will be experienced through headphones by Bang & Olufsen. In the Presence of Others will be open from morning to evening throughout the exhibition period.

The themes of In the Presence of Others will also be explored through special events focusing on conversations.

The exhibition is generously supported by the Ny Carlsberg Foundation and Bang & Olufsen.

ABOUT IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS
The exhibition was first presented in Berlin in June 2025 by the French gallery Le Son 7 as Sound Works. When the exhibition is to be experienced in Nørrebro Teater from April 2026 as In the Presence of Others, it will be a further developed version, adapted specifically to the theatre. The exhibition is curated by Carolina Podestá and Andy Footner in collaboration with Janne Villadsen, Director of Nørrebro Teater.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Marina Abramović, Laurie Anderson and Miranda July are three of the most prominent international artists in the world. Each, in their own way, has expanded the boundaries of contemporary art by working across media, genres, and artistic disciplines.

ABOUT MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
(Born 1946, Yugoslavian, lives in New York) is a key figure in contemporary art, having spent 55 years pushing the boundaries of artistic expression through her physically and emotionally demanding works. Her explorations of trust and vulnerability have re-defined performance art. As part of a major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010, The Artist is Present, she sat motionless at a table all day every day for over two months while visitors sat across from her in silence. The exhibition cemented her status as a major cultural figure. Sound was key to her earliest works, and silence is a recurring theme in her performances.

In 2024 she stilled a crowd of 200,000 at the main stage of Glastonbury festival in her ‘public intervention’ titled Seven Minutes of Collective Silence. Her artistic philosophy centers on presence, duration, and direct connection with audiences. She has developed the “Abramović Method,” techniques for achieving heightened awareness and presence that she teaches through workshops and her Marina Abramović Institute, founded in 2012.

ABOUT LAURIE ANDERSON
(Born 1947, American, lives in New York) is a performance artist, composer, and writer whose work has been redefining the boundaries between art, music, and technology since the early 1970s. Trained in violin and sculpture, she first gained attention as a visual artist. With works such as Tape-bow violin and Handphone table she was already a well-known multimedia artist before her 1981 song O Superman unexpectedly became an international hit.

Now she is known not only for embracing the possibilities of technology in her works, but for experimenting with it, finding new applications for it, and building her own personal instruments and tools. She became NASA’s first artist-in-residence in 2002. Throughout her many creations, in visual art exhibitions, film scores, and installations as well as her performances, her voice and imagination remain at the center.

In 2024, she received a Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, but has since released a new album Amelia and premiered ARK: United States V – a continuation of her 1983 major performance, later released as a 5 record boxed set, United States I – IV.

ABOUT MIRANDA JULY
(Born 1974, American, lives in Los Angeles) is a filmmaker, writer, performance artist, and multimedia creator whose work explores intimacy, human connection, and the complexities of contemporary life.

Her practice has grown organically from putting on a play in a punk club, taking in fanzines, a DIY video distribution network, spoken-word records, an impractical messaging app, and much more. Her spoken-word recordings led to a commission for the Whitney Biennial in 2002, and some of those pieces foreshadowed the films and books that would bring her to a new audience. Her 2005 film Me, You and Everyone We Know won a Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

In 2024, her novel All fours was on every book of the year list and the first solo museum exhibition dedicated to her work was held in Milan by Fundazione Prada. Through these works, a process she has described as a conversation with the universe, she examines everyday interactions to explore themes of loneliness, desire, and human vulnerability.