City Lab 1: Logistique x Aarhus Havn x Aarhus Townhall x The Kaospilots

In January 2025, students from the alternative university Kaospilot (Chaos Pilot) organized an exhibition titled Sydhavnen - Bag Muren (“The South Harbour - Behind the Wall”) at Aarhus City Hall. The exhibition put a spotlight on the city’s South Harbour industrial district, a creative hub that is slated for redevelopment. Whereas a large portion of Sydhavnen has already been sold by the municipality for private redevelopment, the fate of the former slaughterhouse and surrounding area is still open. Politicians are expected to make a decision on future redevelopments before the next municipal elections in November 2025. In anticipation of this, the Kaospilots developed their exhibition as an argument to local politicians about Sydhavnen’s cultural value.

Sydhavnen - Bag Muren featured not only visual artists, but also musicians, entrepreneurs, and community groups who work in the neighborhood. The goal was to make it clear that Sydhavenen already functions as a vibrant cultural hub, and is therefore worth preserving.

This was the perfect opportunity for Soft City’s first City Lab in Aarhus, with a curatorial intervention aimed at local politicians as the target audience. Spanien19C collaborated with Kaospilots to secure its own pocket within the exhibition, where they installed Sally Dahlgaard’s film, Logistique x Aarhus Havn (description attached). This was a vital contribution to the exhibition, as critical commentary about opaque political decision making processes, and how difficult it is for citizens to obtain information or contribute to urban planning dialogues. The exhibition included also a presentation of the project “Mapping of Sydhavnen, Aarhus, 2024” by a British architect Carl Fraser, which was also produced as part of the “Soft City” project.

You can watch "Logistique x Aarhus Havn" here: