City Walk: Post-Colonialist Sites in Copenhagen, Denmark
Note to Reader:
This writing sample excerpts a city walk of two Copenhagen neighborhoods, consisting of locations that reflect Denmark’s colonial legacy. This abridged assignment originates from the college course History of Copenhagen, which I took at DIS Copenhagen while studying abroad. The following are narrative transcriptions for the 3rd and 5th sites.
Class: History of Copenhagen: Structure, Plan, Design at DIS Copenhagen. Taught by Anders Larsen.
Nordatlantens Brygge (The North Atlantic House) at Strandgade 91:
Walking from the Arctic Institute, we will walk past the embassies of Iceland and Greenland to the North Atlantic House. Called in Danish “Nordatlantens Brygge,” it serves as a cultural center focused on Greenland, Iceland, and Faroe Island (another autonomous country). This building hosts a variety of art exhibitions and events. Like the Arctic Institute, it occupies a former warehouse of the Royal Greenland Trade and moved into this building in 2003.
Let’s continue to imagine the past happenings of this harbor. Envision coming out of this large warehouse the smell of fish crates, whale blubber, seal skins. For many traders from Denmark’s Atlantic colonies, this area would be their only taste of Copenhagen, if not Denmark. That’d be more than what most mainland Danes would physically see of their overseas territories. All the while, most people taking this tour will unlikely to visit Iceland and Faroe and very unlikely to visit Greenland.
Keep in mind that the North Atlantic House is of a more public and artistic nature than the Arctic Institute. These two sites deal with a dearth of colonial knowledge that can barely be contained in these two spaces alone. That’s why we will continue by crossing the water.
The I Am Queen Mary Statue at Larsens Plad:
On the coast side of the Warehouse is the final stop, the I Am Queen Mary Statue. It’s pointedly positioned opposite of the replica of Michelangelo’s David.
According to the creators’ website, which celebrates this work, this statue was inaugurated in early 2018. In contrast to the creator of the Greenland Monument, the Queen Mary Statue was created by two artists of Caribbean descent, Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle. The latter hails from the Virgin Islands, which includes the former Danish West Indies.
Unlike the Greenland Monument, this statue memorializes a specific individual. Mary Thomas was one of four female ringleaders who lead an 1878 labor revolt in St. Croix, one of the central islands for Danish sugar. While slavery had been abolished at this point, the once-slaveowners carried over many of its practices. After this uprising, the four women were imprisoned in Christianshavn.
Today, they’re called on St. Croix the Queens of the Fireburn, hence the statue’s name, I Am Queen Mary. This name embodies Mary’s assertion of existence from within Danish history. This statue affects how we perceive history, including on this very tour.
Map of Full Tour
