Voices in the Shadow of Monuments, Copenhagen Light Festival and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Created by Barly Tshibanda, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, and Nanna Elvin Hansen
In 1754, King Frederick V of Denmark-Norway bought the West Indian Guinean Company that were managing slave trade and plantations under his absolute power. That same year, he founded the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art. Voices in the Shadow of Monuments is an audio walk examining traces from the colonial era embedded in buildings and monuments in the centre of Copenhagen. Jupiter J. Child, Sabitha Söderholm, La Vaughn Belle, Sirí Paulsen, Oceana James, Julie Edel Hardenberg, and Bernard Akoi-Jackson are the artists testifying to how colonialism continues, to how it has never been a closed chapter. It reminds us that the art scene as we know it was built on the backs of colonised people and that it is now up to those in power to decolonise it.
Isabella Solar Villaseca, Memory Marketplace, O–Overgaden, Copenhagen
The exhibition [on view through 29 January] includes a video, a gymnasium-like floor with outlines referring to folk dance steps, and an iron cast banner symbolising the balconies that leaders stand on while being hailed. On the opposite side, there is a photo banner portraying Antonio Aguirre Vásquez – who was part of Chile’s former president Salvador Allende’s personal guard – on a balcony on the day of the military coup that deposed Allende. There is also an installation of T-shirts that look like merch, with images and biographies of Chileans who supported or suffered from Pinochet’s fascist regime, including famed musicians Violeta Parra and Victor Jara. It made me think about the protests against the fascist Islamic republic in Iran happening right now. “The people united, will never be defeated” (Quilapayún).
Monia Sander Haj-Mohamed, Heavy Body, Heavenly Body, O–Overgaden, Copenhagen
I first experienced a performance by Monia Sander Haj-Mohamed at her graduation exhibition in 2020. I’ve never been as moved by a work as I was then. In her exhibition at O–Overgaden, she presented a series of abstract line drawings, made as a form of meditation on being, from a period in her life when she experienced grief, trauma, and transformation. Nothing that goes through me, belongs to me (2022) was an audience-generated performance accompanying the drawings. The audience participated by reading the script and their readings were recorded and played back continuously in the exhibition.
Melanie Kitti is a visual artist and writer, based in Oslo and Copenhagen. She is currently showing works at Rønnebæksholm Kunsthal and Heirloom CAA. In August, she debuted with the poetry collection Halvt urne, halvt gral (Half urn, Half grail, Gyldendal).
For this year’s contributions to Kunstkritikk’s Advent Calendar, see here.
