LECTURE: IDA HORNUNG HAVGAARD: FROM GOLD TO OBLIVION AND BACK

About the lecture

In 2021, a large group of polychrome plaster sculptures and reliefs were discovered crammed into a small space behind a shell wall on the ninth floor of the Copenhagen City Hall Tower. Their surfaces were covered in graffiti and a thick layer of dust. The sculptures were first created as decorations for a triumphal arch in connection with a royal golden wedding anniversary in 1892, but their form and surfaces implied an eventful existence since then, through which their site and appearance have changed several times. So how did they turn up behind a shell wall 130 years later, and how did the changes to their site and appearance impact their meaning and function over time?

In this lecture, Ph.D. fellow Ida Hornung Havgaard will talk about her current research into monuments and sculptures in public spaces as dynamic phenomena. By working with the sculptures found in the Copenhagen City Hall Tower as itinerant objects and using a site-, surface-, and user-sensitive approach, Ida will unfold how the meaning and function of sculptures in public spaces can be subject to negotiations over time through sanctioned and unsanctioned interventions (e.g. graffiti and restoration).

The lecture can be attended in person or online.

Registration only needed for online attendance: Follow this link to register.

About the lecture series

Monumental sculpture has taken central stage in contemporary discussions on colonial history, structural racism, inequality, and marginalization. Recently public statues of Danish kings, missionaries, and explorers have been confronted by activists seeking to address unfinished histories of Danish colonialism. Statues of Hans Egede in Nuuk and Copenhagen have been daubed in red paint with “DECOLONIZE!” and “RACIST!” added to their plinths, and a plaster bust of King Frederik V has been thrown into the waters of the Copenhagen harbor. Artists have also erected new critical public monuments, such as Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle’s I Am Queen Mary (2018) – the first statue of a Black woman in Denmark, and the first monument to commemorate histories of resistance against Danish colonial rule.

Moving Monuments seeks to problematize the assumption that public monuments are static entities made for eternity. In contrast, the project focuses on the material, historical, and political transformations and reframings involved as monumental sculptures move between different sites and across time. The core-team members each work on individual projects, which will be presented within the frames of this lecture series, shifting the theoretical and methodological orientation of research on monumental sculpture in Denmark and beyond. In doing so, the project creates new critical platforms for discussing the life and afterlife of public monuments as dynamic historical agents whose functions and contexts change across time and space, the project examines the intersections of art, power, and imperial history.