In 2025, the exhibition project A Flag is a Piece of Fabric continues with three colorful flags by the Japanese artist Ay-O, who was a central figure in the experimental Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 70s. Ay-O is known for his “rainbow happening” in the Eiffel Tower back in 1987, where a 300 meter long rainbow flag was installed at the top. Ay-O has also played a crucial role in bridging the gap between Western and non-Western art.

In 2025, the exhibition is titled Ay-O: Rainbow Landscape #2025 and is realized in collaboration with Tiger Tanuki, run by art historian and curator Malene Wagner. Kunsthal Aarhus has installed two additional flagpoles for the realization of the exhibition, significantly expanding the concept compared to previous years.

With Heat Flag (Aarhus) Raul Walch visually presents a recent hot July month in Denmark in watercolour. The title refers to heat maps where certain colours are associated with different temperatures but these colours can also represent elevation changes or other gradients. The original medium of watercolour, which is transfer-printed onto flag textile, is informed by this, the colours bleed and blend. A fluidity that cannot be contained. The water surrounding the border of Denmark appear lighter in colour but not cold. Rising temperatures mean rising water levels which besides its impact on nature and wildlife will have an effect on the country. The colour red indicates alarm or danger. Then, Walch questions “when will the whole flag turn red and how deep will we let the shades get?”

For this year's artistic flag at Kunsthal Aarhus, the Korean artist Donghee Koo has been inspired by a well-known Korean talisman. The symbol for happiness and wish fulfilment, which is why the title of the work is fittingly Good Luck. The talisman is made up of a combination of Chinese characters, which stems from the now past mix of Korean and Chinese writing called Hanja.
The writing can be difficult to decipher as letters. Donghee Koo was interested in the talisman's dual-sided qualities of a scripture part and an abstract part similar to a hieroglyph, in which the form, among other things, appears to show a reptile.

The artist hopes that the flag can help bring good luck to the Kunsthal Aarhus guests and passers-by through 2022.

While flags often signal nationalism or a particular policy and location, the artist Ditte Gantriis has chosen to detach her work from these immediate symbolic values through an unconventional format and motif: The flag is vertical, fringed and adorned by a single flower The innocent flower that waves in the wind is a response to the flag as a symbol of demarcation and nationalism. The art flag represents the child, nature and what is not defined by its limit.

Gantriis sees the art flag as a condensation of her exhibition contribution to the grand exhibition GO EXTREME. For the exhibition, Ditte Gantriis has also designed another flag that remixes Go Extremes own logo. However, this official GO EXTREME flag will first be shown at the opening of the exhibition.

The flag in Kunsthal Aarhus Skulpturpark, Rebreather: The wind as a drunk, was shaped like a windsock . A windsock is a cylinder of fabric used to show the direction and strength of the wind. Windsocks are typically installed in airports and at locations with a risk of gas-leeks. A windsock is divided into segments which are filled one by one with air depending on how windy it is.

The segments on Rebreather: The wind as a drunk were used as a sequenced frame that shows a determined movement: The wind takes the shape of a face blowing wind.

In more than one way, Gjerding’s work was an animation of nature. The real wind animated the work; it brought it to life and made it possible for the work to unfold as an animation of the wind itself. Rebreather: The wind as a drunk depicted nature as something which possess human traits – a drunkard who is blowing. As the wind blows stronger and stronger the drunkard spins more and more out of control.

Sophia Ioannou Gjerding (1989, DK) graduated from The Jutland Art Academy in Aarhus in 2018. She often works with video exploring the concept of animation. Animation has a long cultural and religious history. In mainstream culture animation is best known in relation to cartoons, while another example is the biblical tale of God disguising himself as a burning bush. With technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality the concept of animation might be more relevant than ever.

Material: Polyester

In the flagpole at Kunsthal Aarhus flew a banner created by artist Henrik Plenge Jakobsen in 2019: Stripes and Stripes . The piece was sewn out of material taken from two Stars & Stripes flags, the official flag of the United States of America. Plenge Jakobsen raised the flag himself at a ceremony held in February 2019 in relation with the finissage of the exhibition Post Institutional Stress Disorder (PISD).

Plenge Jakobsen’s artistic practice revolves around a critique of the fundamental political, economic and social structures underpinning modern society. He often designs works for public spaces, letting them intervene in and interfere with their settings.

Plenge Jakobsen works with multiple media. In his installations, he often juxtaposes sculptural elements with performance, photography and murals.

Henrik Plenge Jakobsen (b. 1967, DK) is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

The colour festlig teglrød (festive brick-red) adorned the outer walls in the years 1954 – 1969 . On occasion of the 100-year-anniversary of Kunsthal Aarhus artist Bodil Nielsen recreated the colour, which now decorates one of the walls in the café and the restroom.