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Theme: Urban Communities
“Since I came over here, I have felt like I could breathe, you know, and just be more or less human, without being white or black, green or yellow, or whatever. I’m very rarely aware of colour here in Europe. Sometimes I am, but it’s very rare.” Dexter Gordon, 1969 (jazz musician).
City communities
Copenhagen is not merely a big city somewhere in the world. Copenhagen consists of a number of small, interconnected parts in the form of districts, individuals and communities that simultaneously reflect a local uniqueness and function as centers in complex, global network. Communities based on music, culture, home, language, civic virtue and resistance create and remodel the city’s many different cultures and help newcomers find their feet. At the same time, they reach beyond the city as a locality and connect the urban as a phenomenon together across borders and nationalities.
In the exhibition theme you can hear more about the city’s known and unknown communities through all times.
Highlights from “Urban Communities”
Stories from the exhibition theme:
Time sphere
From 1868, this time sphere was what Copenhageners set their clocks after. With the help of a telegraphic wire and an electric device, the sphere could be raised and dropped from the observatory in the Round Tower at precisely 13.00 every day. This enabled people to synchronise their watches. The raising and dropping of the time sphere replaced the former system in which a flag had been hoisted since 1772. The time sphere was moved to Frihavnen in 1909, and was decommissioned in 1941. By then radio and the speaking clock had taken over the role of regulating time in Copenhagen.
Nyboder dogs
The dogs were put on display in the more prosperous Nyboder homes, just as they did in other maritime cities across most of northern Europe. According to one tradition, the dogs should face one other. The left dog was known as ‘the heart dog’, its task to protect wife and home and serve as a reminder of the husband when he was at sea. According to another tradition, the dogs should face the window when the husband was out, and in the other direction when he was home. In this way, the position of the dogs’ heads could inform potential suitors whether or not the coast was clear.
The youth center at Jagtvej 69
The youth center at Jagtvej 69 existed from 1982 to 2007. The activities in the house consisted of e.g. alternative music, community kitchen, experimental theatre and political meetings, including the planning of demonstrations and happenings. On 1st March 2007 the house was pulled down after a long showdown with the then owners of the building, Faderhuset, and negotiations with Copenhagen Municipality. The plot remains unused.
Other exhibition themes
Read more about the Museum of Copenhagen’s previous special exhibitions.