Upcoming exhibition

Unruly - The Body in Punk

27/06/2026 – 13/12/2026

Location

Level. 5

Price

Free with annual pass or after paying admission

Buy Ticket

About the exhibition

Be confronted by the eccentric and provocative body as ARoS puts the spotlight on punk's creative revolution with the exhibition Unruly – The body in punk.

Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Eugene Merinov, Bauhaus' Peter Murphy holding a cymbal in front of his face at a Tier 3, NYC concert, 1981, black & white silver gelatin print, 43 x 55 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Cornelia Schleime, Self-Staging “Open Mouth, Close Eyes“, Dresden, 1982. Silver gelatin on baryta paper, overpainted with ink, 21.5 x 29.9 cm. Copyright: The artist. Courtesy Galerie Judin, Berlin.
Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Sven Marquardt, Uden titel (Østberlin, 1980'erne). Med tilladelse fra kunstneren.

Featuring around 130 works, the exhibition traces punk’s origins in 1970's London and shows how the movement spread and changed – with a special focus on Berlin's subcultures. Pain, wildness, imagination. Energy, boldness, defiance. Punks used the body as a form of resistance against discipline and societal norms imposed by a world they saw as already collapsing. In punk, bodily expression was political.

Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

X-Ray Spex, Oh Bondage Up Yours!, promotional poster 1977. 61 x 43 cm. Courtesy of The Mott Collection.
Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Anne Bean, Who Speaks My Voice, ca. 1982. Camera: Sue Arrowsmith. Archival pigment print, 40 x 56 cm. © Anne Bean/photograph courtesy England & Co.
Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Sheila Rock, Jordan i døren til Malcolm McLaren og Vivienne Westwoods modebutik SEX, King’s Road, London 1977. Med tilladelse fra kunstneren og Elliott Photography Gallery.

Discover works by Derek Jarman (1942–1994), Linder (b. 1954), Nina Sten-Knudsen (b. 1957), Cornelia Schleime (b. 1953), Die Tödliche Doris (active 1980–1987) and Ajamu X (b. 1963), among others – most of which have never been shown in Scandinavia.

Unruly is the result of a post-doctoral research project in collaboration between ARoS and Aarhus University and is curated by external curator and post-doc researcher Marie Arleth Skov. The three-year research project is supported by Ny Carlsbergfondet.

Ulydig – Kroppen i punk

Luciano Castelli, DOG (self-portrait) 1981 (photo taken with self-timer). Copyright Luciano Castelli. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Deschler Berlin.

Thanks to

Ny Carlsbergfondet

Grosserer LF. Foghts Fond

Toyota-Fonden

Credit heroimage:

Karen Knorr & Olivier Richon, Vortex 6 from the Punks series, 1976-1977, gelatin silver print on paper, 18,7 x 28,2 cm, Tate. Courtesy of the artists.