PETER HOLST HENCKEL

Walk Talk

October 4 - November 7, 2025.

Text in Danish

JOIN US FOR THE OPENING ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 4 AT 14:00 - 16:00

With the solo exhibition Walk Talk, SPECTA presents a series of new works by Peter Holst Henckel, rooted in the consequences of the global climate and biodiversity crisis we all feel. The exhibition poses the question: how do we act when faced with a reality that can feel overwhelming?

With both gravity and poetics, Peter Holst Henckel explores how art can contribute to the conversation around some of the most urgent issues of our time. The exhibition also serves as the artist’s personal response to the uncertainty and reflections many share when confronting the crisis.

The title Walk Talk plays on the expression “Walk the Talk” – that is, to put action behind one’s words. As a concrete approach, Peter Holst Henckel has chosen to create all the works in the exhibition from existing materials. Reuse, transformation, and composition are guiding principles of the exhibition, and objects that have already lived a life are given new form and meaning. In this way, Walk Talk becomes both a reflection on the climate crisis and a poetic example of how we can rethink and create anew from what we already have.

The exhibition reveals a new facet of Peter Holst Henckel’s practice, while remaining connected to his longstanding interest in the tension between a work’s external form and its underlying meaning. He often works with shifts between the visual and the linguistic, between image and title, where friction arises that prompts us to pause and reflect. This duality – between the immediate and the unexpected – also characterizes Walk Talk.

The new works stand as striking visual statements, but also as a simple reminder that art can help open conversations about our shared future. And Walk Talk reminds us that talking about change is not enough – we must also act.

Peter Holst Henckel (DK, 1966) has exhibited widely in both Denmark and abroad and is represented in many museums as well as public and private collections. He has also made a significant number of works in the intersection between art and architecture with notable commissions, including for Nykredit’s headquarters in Nordhavn, the New Royal Danish Playhouse in Copenhagen, and the University of Copenhagen Amager.