Press release

Søren Kierkegaard and love in modern Copenhagen

For the press release in danish:

Søren Kierkegaard og kærlighed i nutidens København

Press pictures

Press the pictures for high resolution. All images must be credited Museum of Copenhagen and may only be used when mentioning the exhibition.

Gold ring with four diamonds forming a cross. Søren Kierkegaard gave Regine Olsen the ring during their engagement. When the engagement was broken, she returned the ring and Kierkegaard decided to have the diamonds reset in the form of a cross as a symbol of renunciation and his love of God. He wore the ring the rest of his life.

Locket with a portrait of Kierkegaard’s sister, Nicoline Christine (1799-1832). In 1824 she married the silk trader and wholesaler Johan Christian Lund, but died eight years later after giving birth to a stillborn son. She was survived by four older children.

Bunch of keys from the Kierkegaard family house at No. 2, Nytorv. The keys were rescued by the mason Carl Nygaard on Sunday morning, July 26th, 1908, just before the house was demolished.

Søren Kierkegaard’s sofa. The sofa is from his home at 5-6 Klædeboderne (No. 38, Skindergade today), where he was the lodger of Widow Borries from 1852 until his death in 1855. His brother, Peter Christian Kierkegaard, bought the sofa at the auction of Kierkegaard’s estate.

Here you see a picture of the exhibition.

For further information og questions please contact Head of Communication Rikke Houkjær: BT1K@kff.kk.dk or mobile +45 5050 6249.

Søren Kierkegaard and love in modern Copenhagen

The Museum of Copenhagen is exhibiting some of Søren Kierkegaard’s few surviving personal possessions to mark the 200 year anniversary of the philosopher’s birth. The exhibit, ‘Søren Kierkegaard: objects of love, works of love’, will examine Kierkegaard’s understanding of love and its manifestation in modern city life.

Among the items on display: the keys to Kierkegaard’s home on Copenhagen’s Nytorv Square. The writing desk where his works unfolded. His mother’s engagement ring and his father’s ring. The engagement ring that Regine Olsen returned to him after they split up and which he carried with him for the rest of his life as a symbol of his decision. A lock of hair, the last physical remains of Søren Kierkegaard.
These objects from Kierkegaard’s life represent different dimensions of his conception of love that permeated his writing.

Kierkegaard’s love

“Kierkegaard’s conception of love is complex and never simple or banal. The possibility that love may end is always lurking nearby. Will it or won’t it last? Is it, or is it not, reciprocated? These questions are ever present when we speak of both love and friendship,” says Museum of Copenhagen Director Jette Sandahl.

Copenhagen’s love

Sandahl views Kierkegaard’s possessions as a perfect starting point for an open debate with Copenhageners about love in the 21st century.
“It’s a subject we are all experts on. The discussion about how our everyday lives in the city are different from our social ideals regarding romantic love and lifelong marriage is deeply relevant. Half of Copenhagen residents are unmarried, which is a very different situation compared with the rest of the country. Which relationships are most important in our lives? Relationships with friends or siblings or with our family?” Sandahl asks.
To broaden the debate, the Museum of Copenhagen has asked the city’s residents to contribute possessions that represent the love they experience in their lives. Selected possessions will be added to the exhibit and become part of the Museum of Copenhagen’s permanent collection. Items will be gathered at museum events held between now and early autumn.

Collecting love

By contributing to the collection through the exhibition, ‘Søren Kierkegaard: objects of love, works of love’, Copenhageners are also helping to determine which objects will tell future museum guests about what love meant in Copenhagen in 2013. By asking residents to donate items, the Museum of Copenhagen hopes to begin laying the foundation for tomorrow’s museum - which will tell the story of today’s Copenhagen.
‘Søren Kierkegaard: objects of love, works of love’
Exhibition opens May 5, on the 200 year anniversary of Kierkegaard’s birth.
The number of items on display will grow during the six months the exhibition is open, as Copenhageners contribute objects and stories of their own.

Potential museum items will be gathered at a number of events, including:

Friday, 10 May 5-7pm
Falling in love

Thursday, 16 May, 5-7pm
Love and breaking up

The events will all be held at the Museum of Copenhagen, Vesterbrogade 59, Copenhagen V

Join us in the opening of the WALL in Nørrebro!

The WALL is a 12 metres declaration of love of the city – a mobile, multi-touch screen giving easy access to a unique database of 20.000 images from the history of the city. Since 2010, the WALL has been standing in several central locations in Copenhagen, and it keeps on moving. Now the time has come to Nørrebro. 

On November 14th we will open the WALL at Donning Louises Bro. Come and meet the young nørrebro inhabitants who worked for the museum on documenting the neighborhood as part of the Nørrebro outreach project. Museum staff will be ready to show you how to use the WALL, and people from local bars and restaurants will be handing out delicious treats for everyone passing by.   

Come and try the WALL for yourself!

The WALL is the digital platform of Museum of Copenhagen, which gives street level access to a unique database of media provided by the citizens of the city and the museum. You can comment and debate the images on the WALL and you can augment the collection with your own photos or videos of Copenhagen. By the WALL or at the website of the museum Copenhagen.dk you can upload your own personal maps of Copenhagen, images of personal landmarks and secret hideouts. We hope you will share your melancholy sunrises, you shining romances, the no man’s land of the nights, the outcasts of the suburbs, the splendid architecture of the avenues or the children on their bikes on the way to a new day in the city… 

During the last four years archaeologists of Museum of Copenhagen have completed great excavations at Kongens Nytorv, City Hall Square, Assistens Cemetary and smaller excavations at Slotsholmen, Kultorvet, Amalienborg and Højbro Plads.

These excavations have provided a great amount of finds and data, which is being processed. The conservators are preparing the finds and the archaeologists are analyzing them and writing reports on the excavations.It is still to early to present an exhibition with new syntheses about Copenhagen based on the finds, but what CAN be shown at this point is the many exciting, beautiful and strange finds, which reflects the diversity of Copenhagens past.

The treasures of everyday life

As an example the exhibition will display small finds, such as toys from 17th Century, wigs, shoes, and bigger finds like a part of the woman statue, which decorated the Western city gate in the renaissance. The finds on display are especially the small treasures of everyday life. These objects are treasures to us in the present, because they allow us to get close to the Copenhageners of the past.

The exhibition opens January 12, 2013.

A collection of love

Our Søren Kierkegaard-collection at Museum of Copenhagen contains the keys to Kiergaards home, the engagement ring he gave to Regine Olsen, tea cups, pipes, and the desk, where he wrote many of his works. Every one of these objects is tied to a particular dimension of love - from love between siblings to romance and physical attraction /erotic love.

An ever-changing exhibition

During the exhibition these objects from Kierkegaard’s belongings will be complemented by newly collected objects donated by visitors from the “museums” that most people have in their home of objects connected to the emotional epicentres in their life.

The donated objects will make the exhibitions change and grow, and the tales connected to every new object will continuously expand the dialogue on the essence of love.

In the 1950’s the youth of Copenhagen street danced in Enghave Parken and drank milk shakes at Willies Fountain at Danmarksgade. A new exhibition at Museum of Copenhagen arranged in cooperation with Denmarks Rock Museum displays unique photo material, original dancing shoes, records, and more that let’s you step into the world of the first generation who lived out an international youth culture.

The first teenagers

The youth of the 1950’s were the first generation who were called ‘teenagers’ and lived out an international youth culture. The young people gathered around music idols, went out on the town and broke away on the dance floor.

The adults were concerned about this “dangerous youth”. The newspapers wrote about troublemakers and dance moves so bold that they were dangerous for the mind. But by present day’s standards the young rebels seem more like normal teenagers with a zest for life. And in contrast to their parents they managed to create their own cultural space. Youth clubs, dance studios and venues provided the setting, where they for could break away for a brief time, before adult life began.

Experience the 50’s with your body and mind

1,2,3 o’clock, 4 o’clock ROCK combines unique photos with original danceshoes, imported records and interactive installations. Here you can give the ‘dangerous steps’ a try for yourself, and see how you like the dancemoves that scared the press and established dancestudios.

The exhibition will be on display from September 2012 until the end of March 2013.

From an outset that sees the City as a phenomenon that have brought together some of the world’s greatest thinkers and provided fertile ground for progressive thought, becoming the stage for some of the world’s biggest political, economic and social events, The City Speaks explores in text and pictures the various ways human creativity has been influed by and has effected the cities of Europe.

A small travelling exhibition

The City Speaks is a small travelling exhibition made by the organisation Maslaha. It will be on display i cities all over Europe in 2012.

The City Speaks is being launched July 6th, 14-16. You are more than welcome to stop by the Garden Room and celebrate with us.

 

The Museum of Copenhagen has recruited eight young employees to document the district of Sydhavn

Sydhavnen is a district that is at once both overlooked and surrounded by prejudice. Therefore the Museum of Copenhagen has recruited eight young people who live in Sydhavnen to document and disseminate the district’s nuances.  By hiring employees from the newly built Sluseholmen, local year round allotment associations and non-profit housing, the museum hopes to collect very different stories about being young in a district most Copenhageners just drive through.

Training in reporting and collection

Up to June 2012, our new colleagues will, in collaboration with the artist Laura Winge, learn photographic reporting, editing and dissemination.  At the same time our new colleagues will be introduced to collection related museum work, since their assignment consists of contributing to the museum’s contemporary collection with local and personal stories, that only they have access to.

The Sydhavn employees regularly upload their photographs to the museum’s digital image platform the WALL, and the process can be followed on the museum’s website and on facebook.  In June the museum will celebrate the project with an exhibition of their photos on the WALL.

The Sydhavn employees regularly upload their photographs to the museum’s digital image platform the WALL, and the process can be followed on the museum’s website and on facebook.  In June the museum will celebrate the project with an exhibition of their photos on the WALL.

Cultural heritage should be for everyone

The Museum of Copenhagen has the ambition to make cultural heritage work available and relevant for all of the city’s residents.  It is therefore a key issue for the museum to involve local residents that vary in background from the museum’s other employees and traditional users, in the collection and description of the metropolis’ contemporary culture. In 2008-2010 the museum employed youngsters from the district of Nørrebro to record and disseminate their districts history, and Copenhageners as well as visitors can contribute to the museum’s collection with their own personal Copenhagen story by uploading their photos on the WALL.

History and stories change according to who sees it here and now, and by focusing on a district such as Sydhavnen in a diversified contemporary perspective, the Museum of Copenhagen also gains the opportunity to view its own historical Sydhavn material in a new context.

Read more about the newly employed Sydhavn employees and view examples of their photographs (the page is in Danish)

Visit the WALL

Read more about the Nørrebro outreach-project

Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen’s mission and vision

Dive into the dumpster darkness
The Danish artist Hannah Albert has created a full size model of a container in which both children and their grown ups can explore the adventures of container diving. Climb the container, dive in to it, grab the torch and search for the discarded but edible food in the container maze.

The work of a bin man
Until the 1980s bin men in Copenhagen had to swing the dust bins from the holder to their back. In the exhibition you can try on the dust mans leather cover and try to carry the 65 kilo heavy dust bin made out of zinc - or you can practise with the lighter foam rubber model.

Smell the 1930ies
To wander the streets of Copenhagen in 1930 was a smelly experience. Open the lid in the box and discover how a street in Copenhagen smelled 80 years ago.

Who picked what?
Rag pickers pick up the trash and find a way to reuse it. In the exhibition you will find a mobile with picked trash items. Pull the strings and find out who picked it. 

Puzzle the island of Amager
Copenhagen is built on thrash and several places the trash has left its mark in the shape of pollution. Until the end of the 19th century the Copenhageners cleaned their soil tubs at Amager, which is why the island is called “The Shit Island”. In the exhibition you will find a huge puzzle showing Amager. Try to locate the toxic areas, the old land mill spots and the spot where the Copenhageners god rid of their night soil.

Catch a recycle idea with the teddy bear catcher crane
Trash does not have to end its life in the container. In amusement parks you might be lucky and catch a teddy bear with the teddy bear catcher crane. You will also find a crane in our exhibition. Feed the crane with a token and catch a recycle idea.

From magazine to egg tray
Cardboard boxes, magazines, toilet paper, egg trays and newspapers are part of the same recycle chain - but in what order? Puzzle with the items in the exhibition and find the right answer.

Why were the things discarded?
When do guitar strings, bicycle locks or lipsticks become trash? Use the building blocks in the exhibition to show us what you think happened.

Discover the secrets in the chest of drawers
In the exhibition’s chest of drawers you will find items that should have been discarded but at some point were saved by their keeper. Discover the funny and weird stories. You might begin to think about what hides in your own chest at home.

 What do you discard next?
Does your cell phone need to be replaced? Or does your collection of shoes need a brush up? Write on our exhibition balls what you are going to discard next and throw your answer in the exhibition pillars.


Learn more about the exhibition TRASH!

Read about the TRASH! gift shop

On this page you will find examples of our TRASH! gift selection. The TRASH! Shop is open everyday from 10 am. to 5 pm. Feel free to contact our shop administrator Susan Dall Mahler on telephone + 45 3321 0772 or e-mail: mahler@kff.kk.dk 

Fridge magnets

Trash up your fridge at home with a magnet; the magnets display motives from Danish 1940s information campaigns against rats and household waste.

Price: 25 DKK each, buy 3 magnets for 60 DKK


Ceiling lamp by the designer Mette Bak Andersen

In Denmark plastic waste is incinerated instead of being recycled.  Merete Bak Andersen has an agreement with a refrigerator producer whereby she reuses their plastic waste for the production of lamps. Currently she is awaiting a new supply. As soon as the new supply arrives she will start producing new lamps and you will be able to buy the lamp in the Museum’s “TRASH! Shop”.

20% of the lamp’s price goes to the Danish Society for Nature Conservation’s annual waste campaign.

Price: Coming up 


‘Vi tog skraldet’ (‘We took care of the rubbish’)

For a 113 years the renovation station R98 handled the rubbish in Copenhagen. But in 2011 the company closed down. The book “Vi tog skraldet” (“We took care of the rubbish”) tells the story of renovation and the handling of rubbish.

Price: 299 DKK


Fly houses by Nicolai Juhler

A lot of animals both eat rubbish and spend the whole of their lives in dust bins. The street artist Nicolai Juhler has therefore built small fly houses out of post cards in order to offer the flies a more comfortable home. Buy a unique house for your own flies in the TRASH! Shop.

Price: 175 DKK


Write on recycled nautical charts

Nautical charts are normally used for navigating at sea, but these maps have been reused to create notebooks, post cards and envelopes.

Prices:
Notebooks: 45 DKK
10 post cards with envelopes: 35 DKK



Recycled paper pens

Available in different colours. From Eco Ego.

Price: 10 DKK



Rhino and elephant poo note books

Do your homework in a note book made of 100 % recycled paper. The paper is made out of elephant and rhino poo. From Eco Ego



Recycled pencils in different colors. From Eco Ego

The ecological recycled pencils are available in different colours. From Eco Ego

Price: 5 DKK



Recycle plastic purse

In the THRASH! Shop you can purchase purses made out of the material PET, that comes from plastic bottles. The plastic purses are decorated with environmentally friendly ink prints and they will suit your pocket money perfectly.

Price: 129 DKK



Jewellery made out of tractor tires


Merethe Spure has designed cool brooches and barrettes made out of discarded bicycle tubes, tractor tires and rubber wheels. Purchase her creations in the trash shop and trash up your look with recycled jewellery.

Prices:
Barrette: 50 DKK
Brooch with Christmas tree: 50 DKK
Star: 100 DKK



Build and play with maize building blocks from Playmais


The building blocks are made out of maize, water and fruit colour. Moisten the building blocks and they will stick together to create whatever your imagination leads you. The building blocks are 100 % biodegradable and therefore do not produce trash

Prices:
Medium box: 80 DKK
Large box: 130 DKK


Lean more about the exhibition TRASH!

Read about our children activities

TRASH!
Museum of Copenhagen, 14th of October 2011 - 31st of July 2012
Open every day 10 am - 5 pm
Adults: 20 DKK
Children: Free 

In the reception of the Museum you will find detailed descriptions of the displays in the exhibtition.
Download your own copy of the detailed descriptions here

Build out of trash and scavenged materials
The exhibition presents 300 items, more than 100 photographs, paintings, engravings and film clips as well as interactive installations, that invite you to participate and contribute your own story. The exhibition is built out of rubbish and trash, recycled and scavenged construction materials from the dustbins, dusty attics and forgotten hiding places of Copenhagen. Among the trash you can experience historical movie clips, beautiful photographs, funny games and peculiar items that tell the unexplored stories of waste.

There is no mapped out route but the exhibition contains four main themes that you can explore:  Landfill, Street, Backyard and Home. It is up to you to discover the stories that you are most interested in.

Glimps from the landfill theme

In Copenhagen, almost a third of our waste is incinerated. In the past, our rubbish was abandoned on open dumps, where gulls and pigs indulged themselves. In the Middle Ages there were no landfills: people simply left their waste in their backyards or in the street, and there it remains to this day. Excavations under Copenhagen’s surface will reveal our ancestors’ rubbish.

Watch the movie about Christana who is supporting herself by collecting bottles.

Glimps from the street theme

Wherever there is street life, there is street refuse. Once it was horse manure; now it’s mainly cigarette butts. Throughout time, the city authorities have attempted to help Copenhageners to resist throwing their litter all over the place by installing systems of refuse disposal transforming a network of stinking open sewers to rows of green dustbins.

Glimps from the backyard theme

Every morning, bin men collect over 500 tons of waste from Copenhagen backyards. It has been collected in this way for more than 100 years. There was a time when bin men had to contend with deep, dark backyards filled with toilets and garages. In contrast, most Copenhagen backyards nowadays bustle with activity and leisure; therefore people prefer to hide their rubbish from sight. But it’s still there, and it attracts others than those employed to remove it: from rats, flies and alley cats to human scavengers.

Glimps from the home theme

You throw away more than your parents did. Your parents threw away more than their parents did. Unlike our frugal grandparents who saved, patched and repaired, our generation tends to buy new things and throw away the old. Some Copenhageners, however, have rediscovered past practices through recycling and avoiding excess waste. Their motives are not so much driven by economics, but more importantly it is about caring for the environment.


Read about our TRASH! gift shop

Read about the exhibition’s activities for children

Opening of the exhibition “Citámbulos - Drifting Through the Mexican Megalopolis” the 27th of Maj 2011 at The Museum of Copenhagen. See photos here

Watch the trailer for the exhibition

Meet the Mexcian artist collaboration Ulima Hora, who builded ‘La Vojotrajinera’ for the exhibition ‘Citámbulos - Drifting Through the Mexican Megalopolis’

 
Watch the megalopolis being build and hear the thoughts behind the exhibition

Hear archaeologists talk about the findings, the history of Copenhagen and the excavations taking place during the buidling of the new metro cityring

Every Monday to Thursday an archaeologist from the Museum of Copenhagen crawl out of the excavations at Rådhuspladsen (The City Hall Square) and up to the surface to talk about the findings and the history of the city.

Free Guided Tours

Where: 
By the fence at Rådhuspladsen, The City Hall Square.

When:
Every Monday to Thursday at 1 PM until August 14. In Danish. 

Read more about the archaeological excavations in Copenhagen

Visit the exhibition ‘Underneath’ at The Museum of Copenhagen

See also findings from excavations in Copenhagen on The Wall

Read more about The Wall   

With a humoristic and serious approach the exhibition paints a different kind of “close-up portrait’ of a city we all know by name, but who’s citizens and neighbourhoods we are rarely able to connect with particular faces, thoughts, values and names. In Mexico City it is not uncommon to see animals from the country on busy highways, “bless me with wealth spray cans” are available at the local store and citizens make their own mobile gardens out of old trucks when authorities refuse to prioritise new green areas. The city is chaotic and vulnerable yet also dynamic and resistant. It is a metropolis with huge contrasts in constant evolution.

A giant Pandoras box

Mexico City is often referred to as a giant Pandoras box consisting of all evils of the world. But if you take a closer look at the city and focus on elements besides pollution, traffic jams, corruption, violence and the risk of earthquakes you will find a city driven forward by the initiatives, creativity and funny ideas of regular people. Old road signs are reused as basketballnets, plastic bottles get new functions as garden sprinklers, and dedicated citizens turn into super heroes to rescue the city from further malice.

City resaerch and contemporary art

Citámbulos is a meeting between contemporary art and city research. The exhibitions capturres both the curiousness and uniqueness of this giant megalopolis while also dealing with the phenomenon of the big city in general. Increasing population, cultural diversity, environmental issues, weak integration between the different cultural and ethnic groups of the city are some of the challenges that Mexico City and the worlds other big cities are facing. The exhibitions underlines how Mexico City has become a central point of reference in the global discussion of the future of big cities and contributes to the international debate on how to deal with the problems of big cities today.

Mini-mega city in plastic crates

Around 800 plastic crates stabled on top of each other like Lego bricks will form the exhibition as a mini-mega city with streets, skyscrapers and plazas. Inspired by the metro system of Mexico City it is structured as a public transportation system inviting the audience to investigate the city through five thematic metro lines. On a journey through the metro visitors can stop at around 25 stations which open up the hidden stories of the city. Video, audio, creative maps, cultural objects, photos, installations etc. encourages everyone to dive into themes such as “city nomads”, “the magical carpet”, “camouflage”, and parachutist”.

Read more about the themes in the exhibition

Plan Your Visit

Multi culti

Mexico City is a place of many faces, reflecting the encounter between the Indigenous and Spanish peoples during the Conquista, as well as the regional and international migrations of the 20th century. However, the construction of the identity of the inhabitants of Mexico City is not only anchored in these multi-cultural origins. It is a process linked to the search for answers and interpretations of social phenomena that mark everyday life, such as socio-economic inequality, marginalization and discrimination.

Social contradictions

As such, speaking of identity in Mexico City means thinking about a network woven by the inhabitants to create mechanisms of affirmation and survival. The families of migrants to the United States, Indigenous groups, street children and the wider population import, mix and create their own cultural references. Some do so in silence, others make use of the streets to affirm themselves and to confront exclusion. Together, they compel us to face up to social contradictions and to search for ways to be more inclusive. 

Read more about the exhibition Citámbulos - Drifting Through the Mexican Megalopolis

Unconnected

Mexico City is notorious not only for its overpopulation but also for its internal fragmentation. At a metropolitan level, the city is divided between the northeast, where the poorest neighbourhoods and industrial areas are concentrated, and the southwest, where the majority of middle-class residential areas, green areas and cultural institutions are to be found. Zooming in, however, the distribution is more heterogeneous. A luxury apartment complex rises above a neighbourhood of self-built homes in a ravine: despite their proximity, they are unconnected.

Lack of urban planning

The geographical conditions, lack of urban planning and high levels of social segregation, together with a real increase in criminality and a widespread state of paranoia have led to the proliferation of fenced-off streets and gated communities in the city. In the face of this tendency towards physical and social isolation, and the limited provision of community spaces, it becomes essential to encourage the use of public space as a place for encounter, reconciliation and social integration. 

Telepanic and no parking

In the theme you get to know how the limlits between private and public areas are non-existent. A special kind of crime develops in a city like this. Hear i.e. about the Telepanic. And how the population manages to handle the No Parking-rule covering the whole city.

Read more about the exhibition Citámbulos - Drifting Through the Mexican Megalopolis

Along the metroline ‘Urban Jungle’ you see the huge city from another surprising perspective. The country is present in the middle of all the chaotic pulsating urban life, inhabitants have rabits on the roof, and the rich biodiversity of this geografical area finds its way through the pavement tiles.

The urban threat

Urban ecosystems present one of the greatest challenges to the environmental sustainability of our planet. As well as consuming their own resources, cities require huge quantities of imported energy and materials, while they discharge their waste in distant ecosystems. Mexico City, with 20 million inhabitants and a barely-emerging ecological awareness, is still far from effectively reducing its environmental impact.

Cultural dimension

However, there is no use in reducing the urban world to the source of intractable ecological crises. While the existence and growth of cities is an irreversible process, it is essential that the solutions we formulate take into account not only the technological and economic dimensions, but also the cultural dimension, which defines the manner in which we conceive of our natural surroundings and how we relate to them. 

Read more about the exhibition Citámbulos - Drifting Through the Mexican Megalopolis