In the middle of Aarhus, an old car repair shop has been given new life with AUTO

Anne and Frank dream of creating the city's new cultural charging station

Behind the old workshop gates, a few minutes' walk from the railway station, people stand with coffee cups in their hands and talk to each other, while others curiously move around among ceramics, plants and works of art. Outside, small pine trees in wicker baskets stand on the asphalt next to firewood baskets and a rust-colored fire bowl that will not be lit until later in the evening. It looks neither like a classic gallery nor a café that has just opened. In fact, it is difficult to fully put into words what AUTO is.
Anne and Frank, who are behind the new cultural venue, never had ambitions to open a traditional gallery. They wanted to create a place where people meet and feel like slowing down.

A dream that began long before the building

When I spoke with Anne and Frank a few weeks before the opening of AUTO, the premises were still filled with tools and long to-do lists. Yet it was clear that the conversation wasn't about walls, furniture, or finances. They were talking about people.

Anne and Frank have been married for many years and have three children together, but they have never previously had the opportunity to work together, although it has been a great desire.

When they found the old car repair shop in the middle of Aarhus, many of the ideas they had each been carrying around suddenly came together. Anne had long lacked space for her gallery and her ceramic work, while Frank dreamed of workshops where he could work with wood, metal and the old cars he loves. Here there was room for both. But also for much more.

Naervær

When Anne talks about AUTO, she returns to the same word again and again: Presence.

As a trained ceramist and with many years of experience working with vulnerable young people, she has experienced how creativity can create peace and community. She has worked with young people with autism and school refusal, among other things, but along the way she discovered that the need to meet about something tangible was not only found in that target group.
She could see it in her own children, in their friends, and in the adults around her.

"We have encountered far too much in the systems that there is someone who always has something to do. We would really like to think that there is nothing that you have to do. But that there is something you can do," she says.

You already feel that thought when you walk through the door.

No one is rushing you. There is no set route through the exhibition, and no expectation that you have to understand the art to be there. You can explore, sit down with a cup of coffee, or strike up a conversation with one of the other guests.

The building still tells its own story

One of the first things that catches your eye isn't actually the art. It's the building itself.

Anne and Frank could have painted the walls white and created a classic gallery, but they chose something completely different. The peeling walls and raw bricks have been allowed to become part of the experience. You can still sense that engines were once being turned in here, even though the room is now filled with ceramics, plants and people.

Here on opening day, an old wooden table stands in the middle of the room, with a large ceramic vase filled with summer flowers. A small bed of herbs breaks the floor, and in several places ceramic bowls and works of art stand next to each other, with traces of the former workshop.

A gallery that is constantly changing

Even though the doors have just opened, Anne and Frank do not see AUTO as a finished project. Quite the opposite.

They describe the place as a space in constant evolution, where exhibitions and activities will change continuously. In a few months there will be new artists on the walls, other workshops and perhaps completely new ideas that none of them have thought of yet.

The first year is about feeling the city. They want to find out what Aarhusians miss and let the place grow together with those who use it. Therefore, the program will be a mix of pottery workshops, pop-up events and communal meals, where you don't necessarily come to produce something perfect, but to be together in the process.

Anne also makes no secret of the fact that she wants to do away with the notion that a gallery is a place where you have to lurk around and be afraid of saying the wrong thing.

The artists exhibiting at AUTO are established names, but the atmosphere is intended to be anything but elitist.
"The fine cultural is coupled with the popular. You shouldn't go and feel that if you go to an art gallery, it's too fine," she says.
And that idea fits the rest of the place really well.

Here, works of art hang side by side with old workshop windows, and you'll feel just as much like sitting down and talking to the people you've met as you do studying the works on the walls.

Part of the city's cultural life

Although AUTO has its own identity, Anne and Frank do not see the place as a competitor to the city's other cultural offerings. On the contrary, they hope that it will become a place where experiences begin.

They dream of small pre-events before concerts at the Music Hall, art experiences that provide a new perspective on current exhibitions, and evenings where people meet over a meal before going out into the city.

AUTO shouldn't keep guests to themselves. It should send them away with new impressions and more energy than when they arrived.

Anne and Frank don't know exactly what the place will look like in a year. Nor does it seem like something that worries them.
They have created the framework. They hope that people will shape the rest.

Here you will find AUTO

• Address: Banegårdsgade 9, 8000 Aarhus C
• Summer opening hours: Thursday 13-17, Friday 13-17, Saturday 11-14
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