Toto, we're not in Copenhagen anymore.

I'm back in Seattle after four great months of living / researching / bicycling in Denmark. This blog will remain online as an archive of highlights from my trip. I have put together a short booklet of plans / photos / notes on the museums I visited and will have it available in .pdf format for interested parties. (Photo of Capitol Hill by Sonek_flickr.com)

Freeform Sign Painting

There are store fronts all over town with the phrase Glaedelig Jul (Merry Christmas) painted on the windows. I stopped to chat with the man most likely responsible for many of the Glaedelig Jul hand-lettered signs in the Norrebro neighborhood. What an amazing hand--no guidelines or anything--he just painted letter by letter with complete precision. Beautiful.

Louisiana Museum in Snow

In the city on Friday night it snowed quite beautifully. I knew it would be a good weekend to take a last trip to the Louisiana Musuem, so I spent Sunday wandering around the sculptures in the snow photographing the building and then went through several of the new exhibitions. I hadn't been to the museum since September and the gallery with a view to the pond was considerably different--from green leaves and greenish colored water to yellow leaves and a layer of ice on the water. The museum was packed with people and the restaurant seemed busy all day long. They had a nice wood fire going and the nearby tables were hot real estate. After wandering for a few hours I took a break and watched a 1980's Japanese animated feature film called AKIRA which was on view as part of an exhibit called Manga (Japanese comics). Pretty cool... I hadn't seen that one in a long long time--surrealist sci-fi biker-gang apocalypse.

Klas Anshelm x 2 in Sweden = ♥

This weekend I took the train across the new Denmark-Sweden bridge and visited museums in Malmö and Lund. Both buildings are by Swedish architect Klas Anshelm. I really love these two museums--modest and quiet on the outside with incredible day-lit galleries on the inside. Simple materials, a variety of spaces and not too many fussy details make them an art-first, architecture-second situation... as it should be.




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The Malmö Konsthall, 1975 ⤴
There are two main types of rooms: One with a repetitive grid of light wells that can also be blacked out for video etc. The second is a large hall with a glass ceiling plane facing north. Beautiful and different qualities of light in both situations. The tryptych contains photos of the same space shot at day / dusk / night - make sure to click and enlarge that one. A raw, worn and beautiful wood floor made of wood planks is simply nailed-in from the top.



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The Lund Konsthall, 1956 ⤴
With a similar cross-section as the main hall in the Malmö building, the Lund Konsthall sports translucent glass instead of clear. Materials are dark stone and black linoleum floors, concrete structure with a brick facing and painted steel railings. The building is more or less square, with open air courtyard in the middle. Very very nice nice!


P.S.
House Double
In the plaza fronting the Lund Konsthall stands a 15th century brick farmhouse that used to be surrounded only by crops. Now it's surrounded by cobblestone and is used as a small art gallery for a cooperative of local artists. Displayed on a window sill were a group of tiny cast metal copies of the building...brilliant!

Diagnosis

Well, I was strolling around the Statens Museum last week when a voice in my head that sounded like a doctor breaking the news of a rough diagnosis said, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you only have three weeks left... to write the first draft of your thesis." So that is what I am up to—camped out in the Black Diamond Library with a reading room full of Danish university students. There are bright sides... comfortable desks, a nice cafe right on the water for lunch and coffee breaks, no distractions to speak of, grey skys and windy drizzle outside...

* * * November 4th * * *

Last week I went to an election party at a little travelers cafe/bar with a few American friends. The place was pretty packed with American ex-pats as well as Danes and others, all gathered to watch live coverage on CBS. Everyone was drinking American pale ale, popcorn was free and the energy was high. I would have liked to have been in Seattle with the time clock on my side though... just about 4 am rolled around and things were still not settled on this side of the world. That was about as late as I could go! It was cool to hear people all over the city talking about the election... even though Danish is Greek to me, I overheard the words "Obama" and "McCain" all day! Good times!

Statens Museum for Kunst

Last week I went to the State-run art museum in the city center. I've been to so many museums in Denmark, it's kind of funny that I waited so long to go to the big national one right here in Copenhagen. There is a an older building (Vilhelm Dahlerup 1896) and an addition (Anna Maria Indrio 1998). The addition is attached to the old building by a full height atrium space (shown above) which is pretty nice, but probably hard to curate. Several small sculptural works all but disappeared in the huge room... but the overall effect with the park views on both sides and the exposed back facade of the original building is quite nice. I might have museum fatigue at this point, because the whole place left me feeling just a bit indifferent.

Warm-up

Today I gave a little warm-up presentation of some of the research I've been collecting to a small studio of bachelor students at the Architecture Academy. There may be a larger venue/audience in the near future. In the middle of my spiel, I realized I could go on and on--all day about this stuff. I'm not sure yet if this is good or bad.

Karriere (Career)

I first discovered this local art journal a month or so ago. For a free newsprint rag, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the essays. They are kind of "art essays lite," but yes, real essays, with legitimate footnotes, and well chosen images... unlike so many of the free rags I pick up here in Copenhagen which usually display the same new designer chair by HAY (or/and) party pictures of early 20 something hipsters sporting the latest color of Cheap Monday jeans. The journal also promotes Karriere the place... which is, in fact a Bar/Cafe/Restaurant located in the former meatpacking district. (I'm wondering now, where the meatpacking district might have moved?) Anyway, I finally went to check it out this past Saturday partly because they have several art pieces incorporated into the everyday function of the place... and these are some heavy hitters too. Lights by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. A dividing screen/wall by Dan Graham, a chrome floor and "dancer pole" by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, a piece by ? with a what's behind door number 2 scenario wherein one opens a door only to find 5 identical doors, of which one opens to another corridor with 5 identical doors-- out of about 15 or so doors, only about three of them are actually doors that lead to a bathroom, and finally a piece by ? that is completely out of place. Not only does it seem like something out of a first year college sculpture class, it also reminds me of something from the movie beetlejuice. (Go to Flickr to see some photos since I didn't have my camera) I'm sure you will have no trouble picking out the beetlejuicy piece with dangling watch-a-ma-jigs! The place really did turn into quite the jam packed DJ driven club at midnight...

**I just discovered that if you go to the second page of results from the flickr link above you will see the crazy bathroom piece I mentioned... it's called Passage.**

Herzog & de Meuron in China

Last Thursday I went to a small film screening of the documentary Birds Nest: Herzog and de Meuron in China. At one and a half hours it's feature length, and definitely digs quite deep. Light on the technical architecture side, but heavy on culture, politics and business, Birds Nest is a good window into what one might expect working as an architect in today's China. Thumbs up... I like how there is no Danish word for "Popcorn." (Link to the filmaker's website here.)

Socialist Lighting

I've been harping on this to some of you for a while... but I think it's really great! All of the street lights in Copenhagen are strung across the street by wires that are attached to neighboring buildings. The buildings literally have to share the weight of the lights thus acting in a communal way. Imagine trying to convince a bunch of Americans that you want to drill a hole into their building and stretch a steel cable across the street which will be attached to another building--hmmm just might not happen. The other nice thing about this lighting system is that a kind of canopy, or ceiling is created across the street--furthering the feeling that the street is its own sort of room. Oh and also, it uses less material and keeps the sidewalk clear of lightpoles which makes space for wider bike lanes! Sweet.

Presse

When I came across this place during a trip down south, I couldn't help but get a bit homesick for my favorite cafe in Capitol Hill, Cafe Presse. (It's the same sign! -- apparently it just means hey, you can get newspapers and tobacco here, or something like that) ... ahh the baked eggs with gruyere and ham... the rhubarb marmalade... soccer matches on the tv...