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Culture in Denmark
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| Every year Denmark hosts
an international ballet festival. |
| Courtesy Wonderful Copenhagen |
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| The Louisiana art museum
in Humlebaek. |
| Courtesy Wonderful Copenhagen |
Brian Mikkelsen, minister of Culture, has a ready
answer on just what the importance of culture is.
“If you look at Denmark, it is very important
that we are defending our history, our language
and our culture," he says. "The best way
that any society can survive is to be aware of our
common past and that we have a common goal. Culture
is the kit that binds this society together. That’s
our common past, the things we see around us. The
other part is to defend our language."
Denmark’s culture budget is DKK 15.2 billion
(the defense budget is DKK 17 billion). The culture
budget comes from the state and municipal taxes,
license fees and proceeds from the national lottery
and football pools.
Denmark’s Ministry of Culture was established
in 1961. It is responsible for initiatives that
support the creative arts, libraries, archives,
museums, cultural heritage, and higher education
in those arenas. It also covers copyright, broadcasting,
sports, and international cultural cooperation.
The ministry has a definite “arms length principle”
to ensure freedom of expression. Grants to artist
are given with no political strings attached. Criticism
of the government is permissible, indeed, inevitable.
Film has been called “the one art form where
the artists can’t afford their materials.”
Even at that, Danish films are among its finest
exports and products. They can, and do, stand up
to the best films in the world, technically perfect,
well-acted and written. In a reversal of the current
trend, the minister of Culture is going to submit
a request for a DKK 100 million increase in film
development.
Is it working? Every fifth Dane sings or plays
an instrument. In the 2000-2001 season, 2,378,000
people came to theaters. At Danish cinemas, 11,921,000
tickets were sold and 24 feature films were in production.
Danish films had a 30 percent market share in Denmark.
One third of all Danes visits a public library at
least once a month. Thirty percent of Danes visit
a museum or art exhibition at least twice a year.
There are 14,000 sports clubs, and 50 percent of
the population take part in them.
Danish modern art
Christina Wilson, one of Denmark’s foremost
authorities on Danish modern art, has just opened
a gallery in Copenhagen. She talks about what modern
art has become.
“We can see that it is extremely pluralistic,"
she says. "There has been this trend to make
projects.You go into reality and you try to intervene.
Superflex is a Danish group of artists who go to
Third World countries and make a project that intervenes
with the environment.They made a radio station where
they invited elderly people from England. It’s
a kind of pirate station.”
“Olafor Eliason is a huge star on the Danish
art scene, much better known abroad. He takes photographs
of Iceland, where he was born. Huge projects, which
look like structures, you find in the north. He
does huge installations, like a huge iceberg in
the middle of a gallery,” says Wilson.
Modern art in Denmark started in the '60s. “Andy
Warhol meant everything, he was the most important
figure," Wilson says. "He showed that
you actually could combine commercialism with art,
and showed new ways completely. He completely changed
the art scene all over the world. He created modern
art. I think Danish modern art is very full of brave
people.”
The view from the cellar
Lasse Dalen and Annette Olsen split the rent of
a basement studio. It’s not cheap but it looks
it. They have a sign outside, in broken English,
warning away drunks and public urinators, “Please
don’t pie here.”
Even their radio plays only one station, which
was featuring an evening with the Carpenters. They
both have real jobs -- Lasse is a schoolteacher
and Annette is a buyer for the hyper elegant Magasin.
They consider their art to be “an expensive
hobby.”
To them, the idea that Andy Warhol could have influenced
anything, let alone an entire generation of Danish
artists, makes about as much sense as one of his
movies. They favor Per Kirkeby (who was actually
heavily influenced by Warhol) and Kurt Trampedach.
These are quite modern guys, with darker thoughts.
But that’s art. One wag said that you could
never, during the Parisian Banquet Years, bring
all the artists together for dinner because they
would be stabbing each other with forks under the
table.
For more information, please visit: www.kulturbro.com
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