Sven Hols' Grant is awarded by the Academy Council, which writes the following about Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard:
He creates conceptual, subtly subversive works that explore the narratives embedded in objects, their hierarchical position, and the power they exert over us.
With one foot in the world of music as a composer, he is particularly interested in Western musical instruments, their history and traditions, and their tendency to instrumentalise the musician — like a parasite that slowly and imperceptibly consumes the performing artist.
In a series of works entitled Softening Vol. 1–6, Løkkegaard subjects a grand piano to treatments intended to soften it. With its physical presence and long, heavily charged history, the instrument exudes a certain authority and steadfastness in a space, even before a single key has been struck.
Løkkegaard approaches the grand piano as a sick, contaminated, and not entirely harmless phenomenon, one that must be approached with caution. This perspective gives rise to a series of performative acts. Among other things, the instrument is padded with soft bodies and slices of toast; disinfected by people dressed in full industrial protective gear; subjected to radiation therapy; and autopsied.
Most recently, the instrument’s strings, hammers, springs, screws, and other internal components have been placed in glass jars filled with water. In medicine and cooking, this treatment might resemble preservation, but in the absence of alcohol or brine, it will instead have a softening and deteriorating effect.
For his sceptical, incisive, and humorous attacks on the power embedded in things, Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard is awarded the Sven Hols Grant in 2026.