A Castle in the Air

A Castle in the Air | Gallerí Úthverfa / Outvert Art Space | July – August 2026 | Photo: Haukur Sigurðsson

A Castle in the Air is an exhibition of stories about space and dreams. Drawing on a disused airport in the Westfjords of Iceland and a former hotel in Copenhagen, artist Eau Pernice explores the unique poetic tension that arises when the bureaucratic and the imaginary collide.

“It is summer, and the airport office is surrounded by lupins.”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 

Hibiscus tea on paper

Paper size: 30 x 49,5 cm
Motif size: 22 x 31 cm


In 2016, artist Eau Pernice purchased a small apartment in Copenhagen in good faith. The apartment had previously been a hotel room, but she soon discovered that it officially did not exist. In 2024, she fell in love with a disused airport office in the Westfjords, which she acquired with the intention of transforming it into a summer studio. As it turned out, this property also officially did not exist. The works in the exhibition explore how imagined spaces, no less than documented ones, can become
sites for narratives and artistic production.

“This painting was made during a crisis in my studies, when my calling as a storyteller was overshadowed by the pursuit of success. The only image in my mind was that of an artist with an expensive aluminum suitcase, always catching a flight to the next exhibition. With my newly acquired airport, I somehow finally became part of the jet set.”
Ambitions, 2015

Textile color on silk

80 x 120 cm

“Twice a day, I walk to the end of the runway. On the way back, I pull the stroller behind me to keep the wind from waking the baby.”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 

Hibiscus tea on paper

Paper size: 30 x 49,5 cm
Motif size: 22 x 31 cm

“When we replace the windowpanes, we discover rot in the timber on the western side of the house. We remove the wall panels, and for a couple of days the interior is open to the outside. How beautiful the light is when there are no walls, we think. Then we realize where that thought leads. We can’t tear the whole house down!”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 
“In my imagination I place different objects on the runway. It is a play with scale.
An oversized espresso maker becomes a strange kind of aircraft
—a spaceship, or an airplane from another era..”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 
“In my imagination I place different objects on the runway. It is a play with scale.
An oversized espresso maker becomes a strange kind of aircraft
—a spaceship, or an airplane from another era..”

“In my imagination I place different objects on the runway. It is a play with scale. An oversized espresso maker becomes a strange kind of aircraft
—a spaceship, or an airplane from another era..”
“I also think of the runway as a potential site for exhibiting sculptures.
A detached boarding staircase, for instance, leading up to the clouds drifting by.”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 

Hibiscus tea on paper

Paper size: 30 x 49,5 cm
Motif size: 22 x 31 cm

“A pile of black sand suddenly appears in our view. It looks like land art. But it probably isn’t.”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 

Hibiscus tea on paper

Paper size: 30 x 49,5 cm
Motif size: 22 x 31 cm

“The runway ends at a cliff wall, where a woman troll has been turned to stone. She didn’t reach shelter before the sun rose. I see myself in her. I can’t leave this place now. A cliffhanger.”
From the series Air Memoirs, 2026 – 

Hibiscus tea on paper

Paper size: 30 x 49,5 cm
Motif size: 22 x 31 cm

A story about how the artist bought a hotel room in Copenhagen and later an airport in the Westfjords of Iceland —neither of which officially exists.
The Castle in the Air, 2026

Film with audio. 

Duration:  15:07 minutes

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