Festival Center at Kunsthal Charlottenborg

Banu Cennetoğlu (b. 1970, Ankara) lived in Paris, New York, and Amsterdam before settling in Istanbul in 2005. In her artistic practice, she explores the political dimensions of various social and cultural hierarchies. Cennetoğlu has exhibited at prestigious international exhibitions, including documenta 14, the Liverpool Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, the Berlin Biennial, and represented Turkey alongside Ahmet Öğüt at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

BEING SAFE IS SCARY at Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents a series of works that weave personal and official histories together in a shared political space. The exhibition’s title comes from one of Cennetoğlu’s works—a photograph of the phrase as graffiti on a wall in Athens. The ambiguous statement raises questions such as who can be safe and at what cost?

Cennetoğlu often works with extensive material collection, cataloging, and archiving, which manifests in meticulously composed works with far-reaching perspectives. For the exhibition, she has produced the work 29.01.2025, presenting all print editions of daily newspapers and weekly publications released in Denmark on January 29, 2025. By collecting, cataloging, and displaying all newspapers published in a country on a specific day, Cennetoğlu examines how news media prioritize and convey information—what is included, what is left out, and how stories are told and for whom. The work is not just about major headlines—special supplements, non-news content, typography, layout, and color choices all demonstrate how the world is sorted, organized, and represented in newspaper communication. 29.01.2025 is presented alongside a selection of previous editions of the work from other countries, forming a slowly growing archive of the printed newspaper’s role in constructing reality.

The visually striking work right? addresses the relationship between ideals and realpolitik and consists of bouquets of gold letter balloons. Each bouquet spells out an article from the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Every time the work is exhibited, a new article is added until none remain. At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, the balloon bouquets will spell out articles 21, 22, 23, and 24, which concern democratic participation, social security, labor rights, and leisure. At the exhibition’s opening, right? resembles a grand celebration, but as helium slowly escapes from the balloons, it transforms into a more deflated tribute. In a time marked by war, climate disasters, and political uncertainty, the work invites reflection on who can celebrate the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights and who has yet to achieve the status of a person covered by its ideals.

The exhibition also features Cennetoğlu’s film work spanning a total of 127 hours. Comprising thirteen titles—1 January 1970 – 21 March 2018 · H O W B E I T · Guilty feet have got no rhythm · Keçiboynuzu · AS IS · MurMur · I measure every grief I meet · Taq u Raq · A piercing Comfort it affords · Stitch · Made in Fall · Yes. But. We had a golden heart. · One day soon I’m gonna tell the moon about the crying game—the work is a visual tour de force through the artist’s digitized archive, showing in chronological order all photos and videos from her mobile phones, computers, cameras, and external hard drives. Cennetoğlu describes the work as “introspective,” as it documents a period of her life. We see her as an artist, as a mother, and as a daughter, following the production of artworks, exhibition openings, hospital visits, demonstrations, children’s birthdays, and how everyday activities intertwine with political events. The work serves as a self-reflective investigation into the implications of contemporary image production.

Curated by Henriette Bretton-Meyer and Katarina Stenbeck, the exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg moves from broader societal issues to the more intimate and personal sphere. Critical examinations of the press, European migration flows, and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights are brought into dialogue with an extensive private image archive and monochrome drawings, linking everyday life’s small and large events to urgent global concerns.

BEING SAFE IS SCARY is part of HUMAN:RIGHTS—a new collaboration between Kunsthal Charlottenborg, CPH:DOX, and Human Rights Watch Denmark, supported by the Frececo Foundation. Over the coming years, the initiative will highlight human rights through exhibitions, thematic film programs, a wide range of talks and debates, and educational programs for school classes.