Common Space

Solo exhibition

Icelandic Embassy in Copenhagen, Strandgade 89, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2026

Common Space explores how we define ourselves through space, borders, and our relationships with others. As human beings, we strive to claim a space of our own while simultaneously seeking to belong to a larger community. This community may exist physically within a particular territory, but it can also take the form of an invisible digital space that we collectively inhabit in the clouds. Private space has therefore become an increasingly abstract concept; although we seek to claim a place of our own, we also desire the freedom to move through shared and intangible spaces.

Within the context of an embassy, these questions take on a particular significance. Here, nations are each granted their own territory within another country, creating a place where physical and conceptual space overlap.

In the series Interspace, Thordis Erla Zoëga works with the geometric structures of the Nordic flags. The colours and proportions of the flags are deconstructed and reassembled into transparent acrylic works incorporating dichroic film, giving rise to so-called impossible spaces. The works create optical illusions in which interior and exterior space merge, disrupting our conventional perception of space.

The works are both reflective and transparent. Suspended from flag ropes, they hang in dialogue with one another, each piece connecting to, supporting, and overlapping the next to form an ever-changing yet unified whole. Like cultures and societies, they cannot be separated without fundamentally altering the larger composition.

Alongside Interspace, Thordis presents the installation Interface, which explores human connection and the importance of empathy. The work invites two visitors to share the same perspective from opposite positions, creating a fleeting moment in which the boundaries between self and other become blurred.