OFFICE OF DISTURBANCE! ROLLATOR GRAPHIC AT ART MATTER WEEK
Rollator-graphic, dream bubbles and memory traces
During ARTMATTER-WEEK 2025, I organized an art workshop for the residents of Ørestad Care Center.
Over two creative days, residents, staff, and guests collaborated on a large abstract artwork inspired by play, movement, and imagination. We used playful techniques inspired by the COBRA group: rolling paint-covered balls and toys, blowing colored soap bubbles, and making prints with wheelchairs and walkers.
We opened an Office for Disturbance, inspired by COBRA artist Asger Jorn and his artistic resistance to fascism’s “Entartete Kunst” — its bans, rigid forms, and glorification of war. This also echoed the care center’s architecture, which was inspired by COBRA’s expressive spirit.
We drew blindfolded, discovered hidden shapes, and finally assembled the strongest elements into a framed collage. We did collect traces of experiences — and together we created a work of art for eternity.
ART PROFILE
Ørestad Care Center is a municipal nursing home, with 114 residents. located in Ørestad close to Kalvebod Fælled in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The care center was designed by Arkitektgruppen JJW and was inaugurated in 2012. It is a Profile Nursing Home For Art and Culture.
The Municipality of Copenhagen has 9 profile nursing homes that provide opportunities for communities between residents with the same interests.
The Municipality of Copenhagen's profile nursing homes help prevent loneliness and create more choices for Copenhageners who move to nursing homes.
At the same time, the profile nursing homes help meet the residents' individual needs and interests to an even greater extent than before - and create communities between residents who have the same interests.
ART AND COFFEE
This workshop was part of an ongoing artistic collaboration I’ve had with Ørestad Care Center over several years. For a couple of years, I taught a weekly class called Art and Coffee, where residents explored techniques in painting, drawing, and printmaking while engaging in talks about art history. I was also invited to create 21 paintings for the project Lifemarks on the Stairs (Livsaftryk på Trappen), based on conversations with residents about their lives.
Over two creative days, residents, staff, and guests collaborated on a large abstract artwork inspired by play, movement, and imagination. We used playful techniques inspired by the COBRA group: rolling paint-covered balls and toys, blowing colored soap bubbles, and making prints with wheelchairs and walkers.
GROWING OLDER AND STILL LIVING
We are all getting older. Life expectancy is increasing, and many of us will, at some point, live in a care home — often for several years. In Denmark, approximately 55,600 people lived in care homes in 2023. Among Danes over the age of 80, 12.2% live in residential care facilities. On average, people move into care at age 81, and they typically live there for about 2½ years.
This makes it essential to offer meaningful activities — so life doesn’t become a matter of simply waiting for the end, as if older people were merely being stored away. In a society that celebrates productivity, speed, and youth, the elderly risk becoming invisible. They are often excluded from the public eye, the workforce, and the cultural conversation.
So how can we create real interaction between generations? How can we see the elderly not as a burden, but as whole human beings — full of stories, emotions, creativity, and curiosity?
This is where art can play a vital role. When time slows down, art can open a new and meaningful space — for reflection, memory, sensory experience, imagination, and human connection. Through art, we can discover new ways of growing older. The elderly don’t just tolerate disruption — they welcome it.
Let’s be surprised. Let’s explore new paths into ageing. Yes, please.