Biological shapeshifters
Stem cells are biological shapeshifters: They can copy themselves and transform into many different cells. Stem cells live inside all of us and play a crucial role in our development from fertilised egg to adult, and in the maintenance and repair of our bodies throughout life.

Raising Both Hope and Concern
Through new stem cell technologies, researchers can grow, manipulate, and even reprogram human cells in ways that once belonged to the realms of imagination. Stem cells can be used to model diseases, test new drugs, and potentially grow replacement parts for patients who conventional treatment has failed.
At the same time, these new technologies evoke sci-fi-like scenarios of genetic modification, organs on prescription, and blurred boundaries between the natural and the artificial. These new possibilities create hope, concern, and sometimes also disappointment when reality does not live up to expectations.

In Liquid Bodies, new artworks by Charlotte Jarvis, Jens Settergren, Davide Hjort di Fabio, and Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm emerge from close dialogue with social scientists and stem cell researchers at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW. Using materials ranging from aluminium and mosaic to digital media and the artist’s own cells, the artworks investigate the stuff of the body: shaped by hope as well as technology, entangled with our identities.

In addition to contemporary art, the exhibition also includes historical objects from the collection of Medical Museion. Among them are items connected to the physician and cancer researcher Albert Fischer (1891–1956), who was among the first to keep cells and tissues alive in the laboratory—an important step toward today’s stem cell research.

You can also see a collection kit for umbilical cord blood and tissue, used by private stem cell banks. The kit is just one concrete example of how stem cell research—and the hope for future treatments—has become part of a growing healthcare market.

The exhibition also features magical amulets from the Medical Museion collection: a seashell, a stone, and a fox tooth. In periods when science could treat only a very limited number of diseases, amulets served as protection against illness and misfortune. The boundaries between faith, medicine, and religion were once more fluid, yet parallels can be drawn to today, where hope and visions of future treatments still play an important role in both science and patients’ lives.

At the opening, author Ida Marie Hede (born 1980) gave a speech.

Julie W. Tovgaard, Press Coordinator, Medical Museion
Julie.tovgaard@sund.ku.dk / +45 5189 5258

PhD Pernille Lystlund Matzen, Curator, Medical Museion
pernille.matzen@sund.ku.dk

Louise Whiteley, Curator of Medical Science Communication, at Medical Museion and CBMR
lowh@sund.ku.dk

Martin Gertser Johansen, Head of Programme and Communications, Medical Museion
magj@sund.ku.dk / +45 93 56 35 82

The exhibition is curated by Medical Museion and involves collaborations between artists, curators, and researchers at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW. reNEW is an international consortium based at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Melbourne Children’s Research Institute in Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. This exhibition is part of an international project titled Hope Springs Eternal, anchored in reNEW’s social science research group (PREPARE), and will be followed by locally curated exhibits at Science Gallery in Melbourne and Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden.

Support for the Medical Museion and Politiken’s Forhal
Funding for the double exhibition comes from reNEW, supplemented by support from the Ny Carlsberg Foundation, the 15 June Foundation, and the Danish Arts Foundation.

Credits

• Curator: Pernille Lystlund Matzen, Curator and PhD, Medical Museion and reNEW 
• Research and Additional Curation: Louise Whiteley, Associate Professor and Curator, Medical Museion, reNEW and CBMR
• Artists: Charlotte Jarvis, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, Davide Hjort di Fabio, Jens Settergren
• Scientific consultants: Mette Christine Jørgensen, Ingrid Tsang, Megan Munsie, Tine Friis
• Exhibition design: Mia Frykholm, Petruska Miehe-Renard
• Production: Martin Gerster Johansen, Nanna Gerdes
• Grafisk design: Spine Studio
• Exhibition construction: Frederik Bogh
• Communication, Press, and Events: Julie Wouwenaar Tovgaard, Anne-Sofie Stampe
• reNEW Communication and Engagement: Markela Dedopoulos, Nicole Overmars
• Hope Springs Eternal core team: Louise Whiteley, Megan Munsie, Ken Arnold, Pernille Lystlund Matzen
• Expert inputs: Agnete Kirkeby, Alberto Dinarello, Ana Hidalgo Simon, Amelia Green, Amy Lucassen, Anders Grundtvig, Anne Sofie Børsch, Anika Müller, Alexandra Middleton, Alison Salvador, Jan Zylicz, Josefine Rågård Christiansen, Joshua Mark Brickman, Jutta Maria Bulkescher, Kim B. Jensen, Klaus Lindgaard Høyer, Larissa Alina Thurner, Lea de Chiffre Skovgaard, Lingbing Zhang, Louise Saviø Piilgaard, Luisa Lauer, Malene Hviid Saxtorph, Mariaceleste Aragona, Martine de Vries, Martti Maimets, Maxy Stötzel, Melissa Little.
• Venue partner: Politikens Forhal
• Sponsors: Bolon (carpet)
• Object donation: Cellaviva (biobanking kit)

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW, is a unique global collaboration focusing on stem cell research, involving three leading research institutions: the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia. reNEW strives to advance a new generation of effective and safe stem cell-based therapies, built on this global collaborative network of excellence in targeted biomedical research. Its funding is provided by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an international philanthropic foundation based in Denmark. The 300 million euros grant runs over a 10-year period from 2022. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine is supported by a Novo Nordisk Foundation grant number NNF21CC0073729.