Kristoffer Ørum & Niels Kern, aka Emilio Hestepis
Aarhus er #1
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Aarhus is #1 is a counterfactual hip-hop exhibition that takes its point of departure in the Aarhus music scene of the 1980s. During that decade, the city’s popular music scene enjoyed a golden age – but what if acts such as TV2, Gnags, Thomas Helmig and På Slaget 12 had emerged from a hip-hop labour movement instead? What if a local version of the global hip-hop subculture had not been swept away by globalisation in the 1990s but instead evolved into a new collective and political movement rooted in DIY culture and grassroots organisation?

This exhibition is the first in a long-term collaboration between Kunsthal Aarhus and the music venue Radar. Here, visual artist Kristoffer Ørum and musician Niels Kern use AI, rap music and installation art to imagine a radically different world.

Image: Kristoffer Ørum & Niels Kern, Aarhus is #1, poster campaign, 2025 Courtesy of the artist.
Image: Kristoffer Ørum & Niels Kern, Aarhus is #1, poster campaign, 2025 Courtesy of the artist.
Image: Kristoffer Ørum & Niels Kern, Aarhus is #1. 2025 Courtesy of the artist.
Image: Kristoffer Ørum & Niels Kern, Aarhus is #1. 2025 Courtesy of the artist.