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16mm film transferred to DVD (2006)
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The film Postcards – Tivoli consists of a series of fixed-camera tableaux from the amusement park Tivoli, founded in Copenhagen in 1843. It concerns how the orientalist architecture of Tivoli from the late 19th century was a Danish version of an orientalist trend coming from the larger European capitals, especially London and Paris. After Denmark's loss of Southern Jutland to Germany in 1864, there was a movement towards England and France in order to define national identity as "non-German". Ideas of "the oriental" became important factors in the national construction of identity.
In the same period Tivoli hosted a number of "ethnic caravans" or "colonial exhibitions." But while the orientalist architecture (and thereby the colonial past of England and France) is still visible in the amusement park, the traces of Danish colonial history are far less present.
Visually the film consists of 16mm film recordings from Tivoli. These are framed as postcards, with people moving in and out of the picture. The sound is a montage based on interviews and archive material concerning the architectural history of Tivoli, the colonial exhibitions as well as reflections on entertainment and orientalism.
Stills from “Postcards - Tivoli”
Installation view, "Postcards - Tivoli". From the exhibition "Thinking Aloud",
Overgaden – Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (Photo: Anders Sune Berg)
See the related work "Notes - Tivoli"