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Having searched for donkeys in the US Virgin Islands, I returned home and started looking for traces of Denmark’s colonial past in the archives and architecture of Copenhagen. I came across stories of people who had hoped to receive incredible riches from whale and sugar, but whose plans eventually failed. In 1721, a Christian missionary traveled to Greenland with the hope of finding the descendants of the Viking settlers there. At Greenland’s coast the missionary met a giant sea serpent. He found no Vikings, but met the Inuit people and started a mission among them. In 2008, Greenland voted for "self-rule," a step towards independence from Denmark.
At the harbor in Copenhagen, two warehouses are among the few buildings whose names still refer to this history: one was built for The Royal Greenland Trade Company to store whale meat and seal; the other was built for The Danish West India Company to store coffee, sugar and rum. Today, the warehouses house a sculpture collection and newly renovated apartments with harbor views. Only at the West India warehouse is a “King’s Room” kept intact. From this room the King overlooked the activities at harbor. The wallpaper in the room has a pattern of the Caribbean guava fruit.
Installation view, "Incredible Creature", Art in General, 2009 (Photo: Kasper Akhøj)
Excerpt from text projection:
There was the sugar cane in the West Indies,
the boats, the days of great wealth in the capital.
At the harbor in Copenhagen two warehouses
face the sea, side by side on the pier (solid and proud).
The Royal Greenland Trade Company:
built for whale meat and seal.
The Danish West India Company:
trading coffee, sugar and rum.
The Danish West India Company warehouse,
now: a museum of casts of Greek antique statues.
The Guard walks me through rooms of white
figures whispering: “a perfect mold.”
Through double doors, we enter an elegant room
from which the King overlooked the harbor awaiting
returning ships. I note: guava fruits on the wall.
Traces of the colonies turned into a wallpaper pattern.
In 1590, a French botanist extracted sweet syrup
from a beet, but the practice remained uncommon.
Last night, at the bar on the pier I drank cocktails:
FROZEN DAIQUIRI and SCREAMING VIKING.