Woman as Vessel is an international art and cultural project founded by visual artist Eva Louise Buus and journalist Mette Faaborg Legarth Carlsen.
The project brings together women whose lives have been affected by reproductive interventions, coercion and control across different countries and historical contexts.
Through personal encounters, conversations and workshops, their experiences become the starting point for a series of large-scale ceramic portrait vessels created by Buus. Alongside the sculptures, filmed testimonies and documentary material developed by Carlsen allow the women’s own voices to remain at the centre of the project.
The vessel functions both as sculpture and metaphor: a body that can carry memory, identity, landscape, loss and resilience.
Rather than presenting these histories as isolated national events, Woman as Vessel places them alongside one another. The project asks what becomes visible when women’s experiences of reproductive control across different countries, cultures and generations are brought into the same space.
Individual chapters are being developed with museums, survivor networks and civil-society organisations in Greenland and Denmark, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Namibia and Canada.
The long-term ambition is to bring the chapters and participating women together in a major international exhibition in 2029, marking 50 years since the adoption of CEDAW and creating a shared space for art, testimony, encounter and public conversation.
Chapters
GREENLAND / DENMARK
Mellem to verdener — Stemmer fra spiralsagen
Between two worlds – Voices from the spiral case
Developed with Greenlandic women affected by the Danish-Greenlandic contraceptive practices commonly known as the spiral case. Ten women’s lives and experiences form the basis for ceramic portrait vessels and filmed testimonies.
In collaboration with
Nanortalik Museum · 2027
KØN – Gender Museum Denmark
Qeqertarsuaq Museum · planned 2027
The Greenlandic House, Aalborg 2028
CZECH REPUBLIC
BEZ SOUHLASU — Without Consent
A chapter developed with Roma women subjected to involuntary or coercive sterilisation in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic.
In collaboration with Vzájemné Soužití | Museum of Romani Culture · 2028
SOUTH AFRICA
Woman as Vessel
Developed with Her Rights Initiative and participating women. A chapter concerning reproductive interventions affecting women living with HIV, developed with local collaborators.
NAMIBIA
Woman as Vessel
A chapter concerning reproductive interventions affecting women living with HIV, developed with local collaborators
CANADA
Woman as Vessel
Developed with Reproductive Justice Survivors Circle.
Partners
Exhibition partners:
Nanortalik Museum;
KØN – Gender Museum Denmark;
Museum of Romani Culture;
The Greenlandic House;
Qeqertarsuaq Museum.
Community / project collaborators:
Vzájemné Soužití; CZ
Her Rights Initiative; SA
Reproductive Justice Survivors Circle; CA
Namibia Women’s Health Network. Namibia
