Tower Talk: Ad Lucem
Explore the art-science photo exhibition “Ad Lucem” together with its two creators, artist Cecilia Ömalm and astronomy professor Göran Östlin.
How does light from distant galaxies connect us across time and space? Immerse yourself in mesmerizing, deep-blue works created with cyanotype – a unique process where iron salts mixed into UV-sensitive solutions, combined with sunlight, form images in those unmistakable blue tones.
Ömalm and Östlin recreate the Universe’s light and astronomical imagery using both historic glass-plate negatives and modern digital sensors. Each piece is printed by hand, and when the Sun develops these celestial images, it becomes a poetic act: the works are reborn by the very light from the sky toward which the telescopes once pointed.
“Ad Lucem” is the duo’s largest solo exhibition to date, featuring 40 works including a new piece inspired by Danish astronomer Ole Rømer’s measurements of the speed of light – presented in a spatial design reflecting the tower’s architecture and evoking the feeling of stepping into an observatory.
Cecilia Ömalm and Göran Östlin will guide visitors through the exhibition and share insights into their cyanotype practice. For those eager to experience the craft firsthand, the artists will host a cyanotype workshop on 7 February, open to both children and adults.
Before and after the tour, guests are welcome to enjoy the exhibition at their own pace and purchase refreshments from the bar in the Library Hall. Admission to the Round Tower is included in the ticket.
Please note: The talk will be held in English.
The event is part of the program for Light Year 2026 – a year-long celebration of light and the 350th anniversary of Ole Rømer’s groundbreaking discovery of the speed of light.
Walk & Talk with Elena Bollati in “Being Coral”
Meet one of the lead researchers working behind the exhibition as she takes guests on a walk through beautiful, sensory video portraits of the planet’s vanishing corals.
Documentary filmmaker and video artist Maja Friis is the creator of the exhibition “Being Coral” which explores the impact of climate change on the planet’s corals through research-based art.
In collaboration with a team of coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Friis has made macro-optic recordings of selected tropical coral species. The video portraits allow the audience to experience these tiny creatures on a large scale and in a uniquely intimate way.
During this special evening tour, Elena Bollati will share insights into the creation of the close collaboration with coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, which made the macro recordings possible, and the scientific methods behind the exhibition.
Walk & Talk with the Artist Behind “Being Coral”
Meet video artist and documentarian Maja Friis in the exhibition as she takes guests on a walk through her beautiful, sensory video portraits of the planet’s vanishing corals.
Documentary filmmaker and video artist Maja Friis is the creator of the exhibition “Being Coral” which explores the impact of climate change on the planet’s corals through research-based art.
In collaboration with a team of coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Friis has made macro-optic recordings of selected tropical coral species. The video portraits allow the audience to experience these tiny creatures on a large scale and in a uniquely intimate way.
During this special evening tour, Maja Friis will share insights into the creation of the video works, her close collaboration with coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, which made the macro recordings possible, and the artistic processes and scientific methods behind the exhibition.
Art and Science in Symbiosis
Learn more about the role of art in communicating the climate crisis as well as the research and the artistic and scientific methods behind the creation of the exhibition “Being Coral” when video artist Maja and postdoc from Marine Biology Section at University of Copenhagen, Elena Bollati, visit the tower for a talk.
The exhibition “Being Coral” is an audiovisual installation deeply rooted in scientific research on corals and their response to global warming.
The video recordings in the exhibition were created in close collaboration with coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen. Learn more about the intersection of Art and Science as well as the research and methods behind the exhibition in this talk between the artist and the lead researcher on the project. Together, they will provide insights into the interdisciplinary collaboration behind the coral footage for the exhibition, and discuss how the collaboration between Art and Science can open up new insights and understandings.
Note: The talk will be held in English.
Both video clips from the exhibition and behind-the-scenes images will be shown.
Admission to the exhibition and the Round Tower is included in the ticket price.
About the Exhibition
Documentary filmmaker and video artist Maja is behind the exhibition that explores the impact of climate change on the planet’s corals through research-based art.
In collaboration with a team of coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Friis has made macro-optic recordings of selected tropical coral species. The video portraits allow the audience to experience these tiny creatures on a large scale and in a uniquely intimate way.
“Art has the potential to communicate the state of nature with unfiltered seriousness and through a sensory language that can touch us on a deeper, existential level. By translating scientific data into aesthetic experiences, I hope to contribute to new insights that can sensitize our climate awareness and bring us closer to understanding the life forms we share the world with and the irreversible changes they are subjected to,” says Maja Friis.
The collaboration on the recordings also proved fruitful for the researchers, as the video recordings provided them with the ability to visualize coral bleaching with tools that are not typically available in their laboratory:
“In 10 years of working with corals, I have measured this phenomenon countless times, but I have always looked at it indirectly, through signals, numbers, graphs. But now, for the first time, I felt like I could truly witness coral bleaching. The method allowed me to notice movement patterns that my previous approaches had overlooked,” says Elena Bollati, postdoc at the Marine Biology Section, University of Copenhagen.
Tower Talk: Meet Artists Christoph & Sebastian Mügge
Meet the German-Swedish artist duo behind the current exhibition “Lost Library Legends” in the Library Hall.
“Lost Library Legends” blurs the lines between truth and fiction as the artists humorously tackle themes such as our physical and digital remains, death and value systems or how storytelling and factual truths can be distorted.
Join the artist talk to hear the thoughts behind the exhibition and their distinct style as Christoph and Sebastian Mügge show around the site-specific installation on the opening.
The conversation takes place in English and is moderated by the Round Tower’s Head of History and Dissemination, Rasmus Agertoft.
About the artists
The brothers Christoph (b. 1983) and Sebastian Mügge (b. 1981) were born in Germany, but currently live in Sweden.
They are both trained visual artists and have collaborated as an artist duo since 2017. They often exhibit internationally – previous exhibition spaces include galleries and other art venues in the Faroe Islands, England, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands.
As a duo, they create large-scale site-specific projects based on a combination of found materials and their own styles and techniques, e.g. painting, drawing, installation and digital works. In a humorous way, their installations take on existential themes such as life, death, what we value and our physical and digital footprint on the world, and how factual truths and storytelling can be distorted.
“Lost Library Legends” takes place in the Library Hall from 22 June to 11 August.
Read more about the exhibition here.