The exhibition features works across various media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, graphic art, film, and scenography from throughout Svend Wiig Hansen's (1922-1997) over 50-year-long and wide-ranging career. 

From the scandal surrounding the Mother Earth sculpture in Aarhus to his contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1964, the exhibition explores why Wiig Hansen's works continue to provoke both attention and emotion. 

“With Walking, Falling, Standing, we invite visitors into Svend Wiig Hansen's uncompromising and deeply human universe, where the body becomes a vessel for our most fragile emotions and our fiercest resilience. His works pulse with existential urgency – confronting turmoil and doubt while insisting on hope and dignity. In a time marked by uncertainty and upheaval, Wiig Hansen’s art feels strikingly immediate. It reminds us that to be human is to remain in motion – to walk, to fall, and ultimately, to stand,” says ARoS’ museum director Rebecca Matthews. 

The works in the exhibition revolve around our inner lives and fundamental conditions: love and joy, but also anxiety, existential loneliness, and longing in the shadow of the post-World War II period and the Cold War. The exhibition raises questions about what it means to be human in a chaotic and changing world that bears many similarities to the present day. 

"Svend Wiig Hansen had an eminent ability to portray the core of the human soul and existence – both the light and dark sides. He was an artist of enormous range and indomitable drive, and it is impressive how he managed to give form to what words cannot always describe," says ARoS’ curator Jannie Haagemann. 

The exhibition presents Wiig Hansen as a person and an artist who had great courage and dared to take risks. Constantly searching and in motion – walking, sometimes falling, but always standing. 

About Svend Wiig Hansen 
Svend Wiig Hansen (1922–1997) was one of Denmark's most prominent artists of the 20th century, known as a sculptor, painter, draughtsman, graphic artist, filmmaker, and set designer. Over the course of 50 years, he created an impressive and multifaceted artistic oeuvre. 

He began his artistic career at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts after a youth spent in various jobs. In 1964, a few years after his breakthrough, he represented Denmark at the prestigious Venice Biennale. 

Wiig Hansen created both highly expressive paintings and large, iconic sculptures such as Mother Earth (1953) and Man Meets the Sea (1995), in which the human body often takes centre stage – raw, significant, and emotionally charged. He exhibited both in Denmark and internationally, was recognised for his dramatic and powerful artistic expression, and today he remains an indispensable voice in Danish art history. 

Svend Wiig Hansen – Walking, Falling, Standing can be experienced from 23 May to 30 August 2026. 

The exhibition is curated by Jannie Haagemann and realised with generous support from the Knud Højgaard Foundation, the C.A.C. Foundation, the Aarhuus Stiftstidende Foundation, the Hofmann and Husman Foundation, the Arne V. Schlesch Foundation, and Fredericia Furniture. 

In connection with the exhibition, a film about Svend Wiig Hansen will be produced and shown in the gallery. 

Press photos can be downloaded via Dropbox and may be used freely with proper credit.  

For further information, please contact: 

ARoS Press and Communication 
presse@aros.dk 
+45 61904942