In a new series of large-scale oil paintings, Apolonia Sokol displaces historical, patriarchal portraiture to enthrone the narratives of the two artists’ friends and family, alongside themselves. First up, Zahna Siham Benamor wears traditional Berber wedding clothes while posing as an archer—a gesture taken from an Algerian dance of resistance. As with all of Sokol’s portraits, the painting is drafted in close collaboration with the subject. Here Benamor takes aim at the viewer, as if she, a Danish author with roots in Algeria, needs to defend herself against potential attacks, even in her private apartment in Copenhagen.

The exhibition’s dark and cavernous main space emits Benamor’s new, raw and punkish soundscape collaging raï rhythms, strings, ambient compositions, rap, and poetic calls, summoning visitors. The audience is invited to sit on the floor, next to the record player as well as a real-life Jericho Rose and, on selected days, see the poet herself performing live (see O’s website for dates). A core inspiration for Benamor’s music is raï, a popular type of Algerian underground music, which has often excluded its stars, mostly socially outcast women, from appearing on their own record covers; here, a drawing of a 1990s LP cover by raï star Cheba Zohra substitutes her face with Pamela Anderson’s, raising the question of who owns the (female) image.