Artist, Kristine Agergaard, recalls the exhibition in the following anecdote published in O - Overgadens anniversary book: Overgaden 1986-2011 (2011):

In 2002 Cecilie Gravesen, Lasse Johansson and I put on the exhibition Contemplation Room. All three of us had just finished our BAs in London, where we had seen how hard it can be to live in a big city. That gave us the idea of exploring ways to create spaces for contemplation in the public space, with the question ‘Do you need to lie down?’ as the starting-point. We were very young and green at the time, so for us to be able to put on that exhibition was a great opportunity. The project became our whole lives during that period: we practically lived at Overgaden, and that has given me a very special relationship with the place.

At the time there was a wave of projects focusing on public spaces, which our exhibition fitted into, and our project attracted a huge amount of attention – which was surprising, as it was our début on the Danish art scene. The idea was to use Overgaden as the headquarters for a number of satellite sites around the city, where artists from Denmark and abroad were invited to display their ideas for contemplative spaces. There were people from, among other places, Brazil, the UK and Germany, and we also made an open call in Copenhagen, so that anyone who wanted to participate could be involved. On the first floor at Overgaden we set up a headquarters with an archive, a small office, a forum for debate and some noticeboards where you could see and follow the projects in town.

One of the more powerful contributions was Kenneth Balfelt’s Beskyttelsesrum – Fixerum til narkomaner (Shelter – Injection Room for Drug Addicts), in an old air-raid shelter on Halmtorvet, which was a rather interesting response to our shows, and which created a lot of debate in the media. The room was fully equipped with all the necessary facilities and equipment, but addicts were not allowed to shoot up there. Another good project was Direktoriatet (The Directorate), by the design duo RACA, who tried to make the area around Sønder Boulevard a bit nicer by putting cushions on the benches. Every day at a specific time they drove around changing the cushions and replacing the ones that had disappeared. It was very professionally done. They even had a pamphlet printed which looked like a council publication, and put an announcement in the newspaper Berlingske Tidende with information for the citizens.

During the exhibition we also hosted a number of events, including one with Master Fatman. He took all the big, yellow doughnut-shaped cushions we had had made for our debates and moved them out into the street in front of Overgaden. Then during the day there were footbaths and cake for all the passers-by, while he went around chatting to people. We also had a visit from the Fluxus artist David Medalla, who is a bit of a legend. Dressed in yellow tulle, Medalla gave out yellow cardboard beaks to people while reciting a text about being carried away by the wind. It was pretty absurd.