03/06/2026
The Upscale Flag Project, situated in the same housing complex as is delighted to present the next exhibition, Here Be Dragons, by Amsterdam based artist Elena Khurtova. We look forward to welcoming visitors when it opens soon.
Here Be Dragons.
By Elena Khurtova
Opening: 11 June 2026, 16:00 - 20:00
Exhibition period: 11 June - 9 July 2026
The project explores the ground of Amager island through its layered histories and embedded tensions between protection, contamination, ecological value, uncertainty and control.
Amager’s soil has been defined through its use as an agricultural land, landfill, military terrain, industrial zone, and most recently by residential developments. Previously considered a wasteland, the island was used for dumping and treating waste from the capital in the 1700s, earning the island its name ’sh*tty island. Since then, large amounts of household, infrastructural and chemically contaminated waste were deposited and later covered up. At the same time, areas such as Amager Fælled have developed rich biodiversity due to their poor, uncultivated soil, supporting species that do not thrive on managed land. Today, this layered ground reveals a paradox, where along with economic ambition, ecological value emerges from a landscape shaped by waste.
For this site-specific flag installation Khurtova transforms historical, topographic and soil pollution maps into abstract, uncertain images that recall landscape, ground, geological strata and soil. As the maps lose legibility, a new, unstable sense of space emerges, one shaped by atmosphere rather than orientation or data. This disappearance of the map reflects both the physical transformation of Amager and a conceptual distance from the ground itself.
The title Here Be Dragons refers to an expression used by early cartographers ( Hic sunt dracones in latin) to mark unknown or unexplored territories. Dragons and sea monsters were drawn at the edges of maps to indicate areas considered dangerous, untamed or beyond reliable knowledge.
