Press release 28 March 2012
- This text can also be downloaded from the Internet: www.aidoh.dk/Resurrection-Press
Hans Christian Andersen Resurrected in Denmark
First he was
drowned in Odense Harbor – Then the cold winter ice decapitated him,
and now he will rise from the dead and drowned – and will be eaten by tons of
children.
The famous
poet has had a rough life the last few years in his hometown
Odense, and now he will be pulled through an art happening – a resurrection.
The sculpture
of the famous storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, made by
Danish artist Jens Galschiot, had been displayed on
Odense town hall square since 2005. In October 2011 the artist arranged a funeral ceremony, and with 2-3000 citizens he
removed the 3 meter high and very heavy sculpture from the town hall square,
and with some trouble the sculpture was drowned in Odense Harbor.
The drowning
of the 250,000 euro expensive sculpture was a symbolic protest
against that the town council had drowned the artwork, of which the sculpture
originally was a part, in bureaucratic slowness.
But
on the poet’s birthday, 2. April 2012,
he will rise from the dead, and that will happen with a big resurrection party. A crane will lift the big
sculpture from the harbor, while the citizens will drink champagne and
home-brewed beer. After that the famous sculpture of the poet will be lead
through the streets of Odense to the town hall square, with stomp-bands, cheerleaders, Drags
for resurrection, and other entertainers.
There the
creator of the sculpture, Jens Galschiot, will fix
the head, which has been damaged during the winter,
and the citizens will clean him up, after 6 months in Odense Harbor, which is
not the cleanest place to be.
But the
poet’s troubles are not over yet. On the town hall square he will meet a twin-sculpture
made of wax and chocolate. This will probably be Denmark’s largest Easter egg,
filled with chocolate-covered marzipan bars and candy from Odense’s marzipan
factory. The Easter egg will during a ceremony be hoisted 5 meters in the air,
and then dumped in the middle of the square, and all the kids will run to get
some candy and marzipan bars and drink juice.
”It will be a
ceremony of biblical dimensions”, the artist says with a smile,
”First the resurrection, then an almost palm branch sprinkled welcome back to
the city, after that a ritual cleansing, whereupon he will be smashed to pieces
and be eaten by the citizen. Eventhough the order of
events has been changed, it cannot get anymore
symbolic and biblical than this, and then at Easter”, the artist Jens Galschiot says.
”This
could sound like an April fool, but eventhough it is
close to 1. April, we are talking about a real event. I will upload videos
and photos online, where you also can see the photos from when we drowned him
last year. So if you cannot come and participate in the event in Odense, you
can witness it on the internet and on TV”, the artist concludes.
The sculpture
was originally contrived as a part of big fountain depicting
all Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytales, but the artist has had to suspend the
project, because the municipality after six years still has not managed to find
a central site for the Storyteller’s Fountain, although
more than one million Euro has been available for the creation of the fountain
The spectacle
was led by Jens Galschiot who had
invited to the spectacular art
happening. On the occasion he was dressed as an undertaker. His sculpture
had been exhibited for six years at the Town Hall sq. It was one of the citizens’ most favoured sculptures and it
was eagerly photographed.
The artist
who is a resident of Odense says with a smile: “Generally
I’m known as a sort of street-art artist as I’m placing my sculptures in
the public space, but this event could rather be dubbed as water-art.
Who knows, maybe a new art trend has been born….”
Contact:
Jens Galschiot, aidoh@aidoh.dk,
Phone: +45 6618 4058,
Mobile: +45 4044 7058
All
Free photos of the events of The
Storyteller’s Fountain: http://www.aidoh.dk/Storyteller-Photos
The
resurrection: http://www.aidoh.dk/Resurrection
The
Storyteller’s Fountain: http://www.aidoh.dk/Storyteller
Hans
Christian Andersen’s funeral: http://www.aidoh.dk/Funeral