Madeleine Andersson practices brain control at O-Overgaden

Madeleine Andersson will have her first solo exhibition at O–Overgaden in Copenhagen. The show will feature her video installation Degenerative Knowledge Production, which focuses on the means and methods of using electricity to control and classify the human brain.

Andersson's video installation takes its cue from the 1968 report written by the Harvard Medical School Committee on brain death, which defined the parameters for irreversible coma by seeking electric impulses in the brain. Throughout her video Andersson establishes the centrality of electricity, which serves as a metaphor and means of objectifying, optimizing, controlling and assessing whether a brain is intelligent, dumb or dead.

Andersson found inspiration in her own personal experience of thinking, which manifests itself as a feeling of distress as her body tenses up and her eyes squint “as if [my body] is preparing for the impact of something big and world shattering.” She follows the history of electricity's use, from early 18th-century electrical experiments, through Victorian electromedicine and 20th-century electroshock therapy, to the modern AI brain, unmasking its role in manipulating our comprehension of the human brain.

O–Overgaden is one of the leading non-profit art institutions in Denmark. It is known for its Open Call, which enables young or as-yet unknown artists to make a breakthrough on the art scene. Madeleine Andersson graduated from the Royal Danish Art Academy in 2022. The exhibition, which opens on November 23, 2024 and runs through January 26, 2025, represents the culmination of her participation in the O–Overgaden postgraduate program INTRO. To find out more about the artist and her work, check her Instagram. For more on the exhibitions and events happening at O–Overgaden, visit their site.