Maja Malou Lyse: Antibodies

Maja Malou Lyse has hosted her own TV program on the Danish television and will represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2026. As part of a new initiative presenting works from the collection Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde presents Antibodies by Danish artist Maja Malou Lyse in a vacant space at the train station in Roskilde.

”I could not help but wonder: does the era define the pleasures we feel? Or do the pleasures we feel define our era?”

So speculates the Danish contemporary artist Maja Malou Lyse in her video installation Antibodies (2022), presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde at Roskilde Station. In the midst of departures, rush, and waiting, the work turns its gaze toward questions of body, identity, and desire; and their intricate entanglements with politics, pop culture, and society.

The work explores how our understandings of the body, sexuality, and pleasure are deeply intertwined with the cultural and political realities of our time. Through layered video sequences, we encounter found footage from film and television, a wide range of feminist literature, Lyse herself posing for a photoshoot, and the animated sex toy, Satisfyer Pro. With sharp humor and incisive critical reflection, Lyse steps directly out on the key topics of pop culture, questioning how body, gaze, identity, and politics intersect, while inviting viewers to reflect with her.

”I’m thinking a lot these days about media, social media, authorship, autonomy, invisibility, hyper-visibility (…) I’m thinking about pleasure and lack thereof. I’m thinking of the body and why it is so difficult to inhabit.”

The work is shown at Roskilde Station, one of the city’s most busy places, where thousands of people are constantly in transit, crossing paths and glances  every day. Here, Lyse opens a space for contemplation on body and identity as a gaze and a conversation audiences can carry along on the journey, onward or homeward.

“The museum is constantly on the move,” says museum director Christian Skovbjerg Jensen. “We try to inhabit  new spaces for art and to create unexpected encounters with our audience. Presenting Maja Malou Lyse’s work inside a train station is a perfect example of our outreach—meeting people in motion, in public space where an exploration of gaze and identity also unfolds daily.”

The Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde is presenting  contemporary art in  places where people live and meet—in urban spaces, in nature, in living rooms, and here, within a bustling train station. The work is part of the museum collection, and this exhibition is part of a new initiative that continuously activates the collection through dialogues with new contexts and people across Roskilde.

Maja Malou Lyse (b. 1993) works with performance, sculpture, video, and photography, as well as alternative media and modes of distribution, such as the television program Sex with Maja (2019). Lyse graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2022 and has previously exhibited at Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark), ARoS (Denmark), Brandts (Denmark), V&A (UK), INDEX (Sweden), and most recently with MM at O — Overgaden (Denmark) and BOMBSHELL, BOOM! at Politikens Forhal (Denmark). In 2026, Maja Malou Lyse will represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale, as the youngest artist ever to do so.

Antibodies is the first in a series of exhibitions unfolding at various locations in Roskilde, each featuring works from the museum’s collection. Antibodies is curated by Marie Vinther.

The exhibition is supported by The Obel Family Foundation and The Politiken Foundation.