Photos from the opening of UNKNOWN X A Name, Not a Number
UNKNOWN X A Name, Not a Number
On 24 September 2026, we were gathered at Nørrebro Library and Nørrebro Hallen in Copenhagen for the opening of UNKNOWN – The Social Life of Dead Bodies × A Name, Not a Number. Two exhibitions exploring research of death, migration, memory, and identification in the Mediterranean.
Bringing together the work of the European Research Council-funded research projects by LABANOF – MUSA (the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology) exhibiting selected works from their exhibition A Name, Not a Number at the University of Milan and The Social Life of Dead Bodies (SOLID) at the University of Copenhagen. The exhibitions A Name, Not a Number and UNKNOWN sheds light on the lives behind migration statistics and the ongoing work of remembering, identifying, and naming the dead.
Through installations, photography, mapping, personal belongings, poetry, and co-creation, visitors were invited to engage with the experiences of researchers, forensic practitioners, humanitarian organizations, and families searching for missing loved ones.
The photographs below capture moments from the opening, where guests explored the exhibition spaces, that were parted in two. First photos from the exhibition UNKNOWN, The Social Life of Dead Bodies, followed by photos of the exhibition space A Name, Not a Number.
At the opening
We were honored to welcome Mirko Mattia, curator and conservator at CAL and MUSA-LABANOF, Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, who joined us from Milan for the occasion.
The audience also had the opportunity to hear from Anja Simonsen, Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) -funded SOLID project, alongside postdoctoral researchers Gül Üret, PhD and Félicien de Heusch, who introduced their contributions to the exhibition.
Finally, Arendse Reeh, multimodal anthropologist and research assistant, presented elements from the exhibitions experimental and multimodal format, she has developed and curated in collaboration with the SOLID research team and participants from the field.