Egill Sæbjörnsson My Friend the Art

Lecture Performance The North Atlantic House - Copenhagen June 4th 2026

In this lecture performance, Egill Sæbjörnsson talks about how art is an entity that we communicate with, rather than being something that we make and consume. What if art has made us what we are just as much as we have made art what it is? The lecture performance talks about the subject explaining new terms and ideas, possibly creating a new paradigm for us to see art. It aims at explaining the idea of ​​​​art as an object species, and it puts the artworld and it's commercial aspect into a historical perspective, predicting a possible new future for it. It talks about the personal relationship with art as something undervalued by today's society, in particular the commercial art world.

My Friend the Art draws it's name from a solo exhibition of Egill Sæbjörnsson, curated by Silke Calmer Dinesen, at The North Atlantic House in Copenhagen, Feb 7th - Jun 7th 2026.

The exhibition, that spans 2 floors of about 350m2, unfolds as a sensorially engaging universe featuring monumental colored pencils, seemingly classical white sculptures with animated surfaces, and floral reliefs that are activated and colored by luminous projections. Through humor and speculative thinking, the exhibition proposes an alternative framework in which art is understood as a form of evolutionary life – an Object Species – developing alongside humanity. Colour, form and material are treated as qualities that, in collaboration with humans, are capable of generating joy and new ways of relating to the world. Art emerges here as a force rather than as objects something we coexist with, and something that shapes us just as we shape it. The exhibition also reflects on art's caring and healing potential. This dimension is emphasized through the inclusion of drawings by the Icelandic pioneer of art therapy, Sigríður Björnsdóttir, as well as through spaces and furniture that invite visitors to draw and create themselves. My Friend the Art reflects the relationship between art and humanity as a form of friendship – open, playful, and constructive – where participation, sensory experiences and care are central. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the 15. Juni Foundation, AP Møller and Chastine McKinney Møller Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, Axel Muusfeldt Foundation and The Danish Arts Foundation.

(from the welcoming text of Karin Elsbudóttir, the director of The North Atlantic House)

Egill Sæbjörnsson has made a series of lecture performances where he combines spoken text with images and sound. In them he explores his thoughts, combining them with images, that often casts a clearer or a new scope on the thoughts. The aim is to publish all of them as books, or in other printed formats.