My trip to Copenhagen
This is a long overdue post about my recent trip to Copenhagen. I've been wanting to visit Copenhagen for a while because I've heard great things about it, plus I wanted to check out the art scene there. I wasn't disappointed. I fell in love with the city and can't wait to go back.
Copnehagen is a modern city, but feels like a small town. The thing that made me love it is "hygge". There's no English word for it, but here's an explanation from visitdenmark.com,
It can be hard to explain the Danish word "hygge" (sounds a bit like “hooga”). Roughly it translates to coziness, but that definition doesn’t quite cover it. Hygge is so much more and always involves creating a nice, warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people around you.
Copenhagen is packed with atmospheric restaurants and cafes, beautiful gardens, charming winding waterways, and countless places and ways to experiences Danish hygge.
Here's a video that explains it more.
In Search of Hygge
Here's a selection of photos from my trip.
Around Copenhagen
I stayed in central Copenhagen which is very easy to navigate and close to most attractions.
Kulturnatten (Culture Night)
Kulturnatten (Culture Night) is an annual event that happens on the second Friday of October. Museums, galleries and institutions representng art and culture stay open till late night, along with restaurants, cafes and shops. Basically, the whole city is buzzing on the night and everyone is welcome, young and old.
It was great to see so many people out that night and how busy the galleries and museums were. There were many one off events and other ongoing shows that you could see on the night.
Here's a short video to give you a glimpse of what the night was like.
These are the exhibitions I checked out that night:
Album Covers - Vinyl Revival at the Design Museum, about the visual culture of album cover art which included a fantastic selection of around 400 LP covers.
1, 2, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock ROCK, about youth culture during 1950s Denmark, Becoming a Copenhagener, an exhibition focusing on immigration as an important factor in the history of the capital, and a permanent exhibition which consists of images and objects that tells the history of Copenhagen - all of this was at The Museum of Copenhagen.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is around 30 minutes by train from central Copenhagen to Humlebæk Station, plus a 10 minute walk to the museum. The walk was lovely as I passed through the most adorable looking houses.
When I reached the museum, I was in awe of it's location. Of all the museums I visited, the Louisiana has the most beautiful surroundings. Gorgeous gardens overlooking the sea. I didn't want to leave.
There were two big shows at the Louisiana, Self Portrait which looks at self-portrait as a genre through-out the 20th and 21st century. The exhibition included 150 works by 64 international artists, from early modernism till today. I couldn't take any photos from the exhibition, but here's the exhibition trailer.
The second exhibition, New Nordic - Architecture and Identity explores if certain specífic ‘Nordic’ features reflect in architecture and if so how these manifest. The exhibition has three themes, Reassessing the site-specific, Reinterpreting community, and Reclaiming public space.
From my walk to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Outisde the Louisiana. I didn't wan't to leave.
New Nordic - Architecture and Identity
ARKEN Musuem of Modern Art
The ARKEN Museum of Modern Art is another museum with great surroundings. It is 15 kilometres south of Copenhagen and situated between the Marina of Ishøj and a long sandy beach.
I spent time checking ou INDIA: ART NOW which had work by 13 artists from India. Their work in this exhibition revolves around the intimate sphere and the relations between culture, identity and the conditions of life in our global society.
Here's the exhibition trailer featuring some of the artists from the exhibition.
Here are some photos I took from the exhibition.
INDIA: ART NOW entranceSubodh Gupta, Terminal
Jitish Kallat: The Cry of the Gland, 2009Bharti Kher, The hot winds that blow from the West, 2011 (131 old radiators, 195 x 264 x 254 cm)
Reena Saini Kallat, Walls of the Womb, 2007Reena Saini Kallat, Walls of the Womb, 2007
The following photos are from an installation called The Escape! Resume/Reset by Thukral & Tagra.
You step into a kitschy, poppish universe with pastel-coloured carpets, graphically patterned wallpaper, a chandelier and paintings in loud advertising colours. On the floor stands a group of rebuilt airplane seats upholstered in Indian materials, which you can sit in. There are cabin luggage and iPads with entertainment for the flight in the back of the seat in front.
In a style all their own, Thukral & Tagra have created a domesticated airliner. They invite you on a mental journey where you can dream your way to exotic climes in the safety of the sofa. The work is a game, a kind of dream machine inspired by the longing to get away of young Indians, but for us it is a setting for meditating about how we live our lives between the local and the global.
This is outside the ARKEN. It was a cold and wet day.
The Fotografisk Center
The Fotografisk Center is a photography centre that aims promote photography, from photography as an art form to photo-journalism. It produces several exhibitions every year and also has a small bookshop stocked with photographic literature and titles published under their own publishing house.
The Fotografisk Center is located in Tap E, Carlsberg, a venue that was the brewery site for Carlsberg, but after the production of beer was stopped in 2009, the site has been converted into a cultural venue.
Lars Dryendom, The Photographic Eye, 2012Lars Dryendom, The Photographic Eye, 2012
The Royal Library
The Royal Library, also known as The Black Diamond is the largest library in the Nordic region. In addition to the library, there's a concert hall and The National Museum of Photography. I checked out a very extensive Edward Steichen exhibition.
No other photographer before or after has been able to fill as many roles as did Steichen during his seventy year long career. He stands out in his generation by his ability to change directions and renew himself when an artistic method was exhausted or proved insufficient. And no one was like Steichen able to take the lead in the development of photography both as an art form and as craft.
That wraps up my post. If you are still here, thanks for staying till the end.
Copenhagen, you had me at hygge. Can't wait till I see you again.