Cisternerne

Victorian water reservoir turned underground contemporary art space

Cisternerne (The Cisterns) is an underground contemporary art space in a Victorian water reservoir beneath Søndermarken, the park adjoining Frederiksberg Have. The space is genuinely otherworldly: vast brick-vaulted halls with a thin layer of water on the floor, lit only by the artworks themselves and a few carefully placed lights. Visitors are given Wellington boots at the entrance.

The exhibitions change several times a year and focus on immersive, site-specific installation art. Not everything works equally well in the space, but the space itself is always worth seeing. Booking in advance is advisable, especially in summer.

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A story
The cisterns were built in 1856 to supply clean drinking water to Copenhagen after a series of cholera outbreaks in the 1850s. They served as the city's main water reservoir until 1985, when modern infrastructure made them redundant. They sat empty for years before the city began converting them into an exhibition space in the 1990s. The combination of Victorian brick vaulting, shallow standing water, and near-total darkness creates a remarkable atmosphere unlike any other art venue in Denmark.