The artist Ruth Campau (b. 1955) is known for creating ambitious large-scale paintings that redefine our sense of architecture. Since February 2024, Campau has taken over Copenhagen Airport (CPH) with a site-specific painting stretching 280 meters, whose rhythmic colors will guide the passenger’s journey through areas undergoing expansion.

One of the largest paintings in Denmark, this monumental new artwork entitled Something In The Way We Move consists of 50 dramatic colors laid on panels towering six meters high. Using colors that are specific to the artist’s chromatic language, these panels adorn a gigantic temporary wall that has been erected in the middle of the passenger area. Inside one of Europe’s most beautiful airports, the architectural flow of Campau’s color will camouflage the construction site with a sensory experience. Ruth

Campau works with abstract painting, where color, space and process are her materials. She draws the viewer in close to her characteristic, long, vertical strokes, which she applies with her signature brushwork. Campau herself describes the painting technique: “Each stroke represents a ‘here and now’ with the human presence. It is my hope that this stroke can spread to the viewer — perhaps as a healing and present stroke or flow for body and soul.” Twenty-five thousand passengers a day will experience themselves moving through color, space and time in their journey. At the same time, the artwork allows a chance to seize the present through the senses in a civic space defined by continuous movement as we reach our final destination.

Produced on location within a large studio space provided by the CPH Airport, Something In The Way We Move will dynamically move and adjust itself in accordance with the expansion of CPH until the new terminal is ready in 2028. In doing so this artwork shows how contemporary art can tell a poetic story about the airport’s evolution while guaranteeing passengers a vibrant new experience with every phase of the construction process.

Something In The Way We Move is located in the Terminal area between Gates B and C. The artwork has been produced by Creator Projects and CPH Airport in collaboration with Zeso Architects. Using the power of art to enhance the global traveler’s experience, this is Creator Projects’ fifth public commission inside of CPH Airport. Previous art projects include Jeppe Hein’s Your Journey (2020); HuskMitNavn’s Airport People (2019); Alexander Tovborg’s Sphinx and Nature (2019); William Soya’s Light Sculpture (1975).