On a stage at Roskilde Festival Højskole stand two cloaked figures. A warm red light surrounds them as hundreds of people slowly seep into the room. Gradually, the voices subside, and an almost solemn calm spreads through the red room.  

 "We are going to do the poetic self exercise..." Gry Worre Hallberg's chanting voice sounds over the crowd.

 We are at the Academy for Social Innovation's annual meeting Open Academy, and Gry will guide the participants on a journey to their innermost core, their 'Poetic Self'. The exercise is created by the performance group Sisters Hope, which she co-founded. It's a sensory, slow and meditative journey with a clear destination: to rediscover our sensual and creative side.
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Art as a catalyst

In 2025/2026, Danish Social Innovation Academy is working with the theme "The Art of Change", exploring how art and artistic methods can give us new perspectives and room for action as change leaders. And if you ask Gry Worre Hallberg, art is crucial if we, as both leaders and people, want to create a more sustainable society.

"The aesthetic and sensory dimension lives in all of us, whether we're enjoying a piece of chocolate or taking a walk in the woods," she says "Art creates a space where we zoom in on this kind of experience and celebrate it. That side needs more space to inform our world."
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The sensory society

The performance group Sisters Hope was founded in 2007 and today operates worldwide at the intersection of art, activism and research. The group's artistic practice is based on a vision of a future society, The Sensuous Society, where the sensuous and poetic are the foundation of all commerce and interaction. Here, the sensuous and poetic are given the highest value, which is the premise on which everything is designed. "Imagine that the sensual and poetic came first. How would you make a birthing room? How would we organize our family life or our workplace? Or just plant a lawn? It's about prioritizing based on some fundamentally different values than today."

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Photos: 1-3 Sisters Hope for Open Academy 2025. Photographer: Søren Malmose. 4-5 Sensuous Governing by Sisters Hope. Photographer: I diana lindhardt. 6 Sisters Sensing (The World) by Sisters Hope. Photographer: The Eye Fé Hedda Rysstad.

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Sisters Hope's performances range from artistic takeovers of everyday spaces, such as schools, to their own artistic spaces where you can live and participate in a performance work. This year, they are making their mark on the international scene with the work "Sisters Academy - The Boarding School" as the curated main work at Italy's Capital of Culture 20225 Agrigento. And from 2026 they will open a permanent platform "Center of The Sensuous" - Center for Sensuousness, in the middle of Valby with talks, stays and workshops on the agenda. The ambition is to become a Nordic beacon for the importance of the sensuous for a sustainable future. Through open access to their sensuous micro-universes and their special sensuous method, Sisters Hope will "democratize the aesthetic," says Gry Worre Hallberg.

"We want to make the sensual and poetic accessible to everyone as a way of being in the world. Art and the artist have become autonomous and exalted in a way that can be exclusionary - we want to translate and bridge the gap between the art world and our everyday lives. We want to poeticize everyday actions so that we can rediscover the deep, sensual side of ourselves."

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New connections

At one school, Sisters Hope worked with sound, light and timelessness - specifically by removing all clocks; at Odense City Hall, they led blindfolded participants through a series of sensory exercises to practice "sensuous governing"; and in China and Brazil, they conducted 12-hour "sensory walks" with ritual performances along the way. They have also collected more than 2000 testimonies about the experience of living and participating in the sensuous community.

What happens to people in these micro-communities you create? ‍

"The sense of time becomes different. Chronological time dissolves and the present fills time. People connect to themselves and each other in new ways using our concept of performance. They begin to wonder where they come from. Their gaze lifts to a greater reality - that we are all made of stardust, for example. There is a different, more precise rhythm. We create a lot of chaos and noise around ourselves in our everyday lives. And we spend an enormous amount of power and energy thinking about whether we are good enough. In the sensory society, we don't apologize for our being or the way we feel. So we can channel that thinking into something else. The mental becomes connected to the physical in a very natural way and our lives act more in accordance with our deeper inner landscapes."

Does it last?‍

"We are all immersed in this reality. But our argument is also that we should stay in life, not remove ourselves from it. That's also why our new Center for Sensuality is located in the middle of Valby. This is where people live. We need to transform and create value from where we are."
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Gry Worre Hallberg talks about The Sensuous Society in a TEDx talk at UN City, 2013:

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Soft front, strong back

Gry Worre Hallberg admits that Sisters Hope's approach can be challenging for some, especially people with authority and success within existing structures. But she maintains that there is great value in artistic methods and rituals, especially for leaders who want to create change.

"If you dare to make decisions from a different, more sensory approach to the world, you also become more curious and open. I like the concept of 'soft front, strong back', which a good friend introduced me to, where you meet the world softly but still stand strong in yourself." She emphasizes that it's not a coaching-like 'one size fits all' approach, but rather about making cracks in the existing framework. "Try to let the artistic universe become part of your reality and not just entertainment. What happens if music becomes part of your everyday life, you have pink lights in the office or open Wednesdays for employees. Or you use the 'poetic self' exercise daily to notice where you are making decisions from right now."

A caring revolution

According to Sisters Hope's manifesto, the many small movements in everyday life should lead to a "poetic revolution" where we transition to an aesthetic society. Gry Worre Hallberg doesn't really like the word revolution, but there is a need for a break with our current social model, which is neither mentally, socially nor ecologically sustainable, she emphasizes.

"Revolution is a very hard tool of transformation: two sides collide, radically and quickly, and then there is a winner and a loser. We put poetic in front because it signals a caring process. A radical transformation of society where the sensual and poetic become important building blocks."

It's about changing things from the inside through artistic interventions, she explains.

"It's not about shaming or a tough confrontation with a winner and a loser. Because then we get a system where half are not included. There is no exclusion in what we do. It's a universe of inspiration, where you inhabit the aesthetic and sensual, and then translate some things into your own world. Where it instinctively makes sense."

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Read Gry Worre Hallberg's PhD thesis: "Sensuous Society - Carving the path towards a sustainable future"

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