On my first Wednesday without a field study here in Copenhagen, I embarked on a little adventure I called “Museum Wednesday“.  And so, I figured that on my last Wednesday without a field study (which is also my LAST Wednesday in Copenhagen, ?????), where better to spend it than at a museum?

And what better museum to end with than the Louisiana Museum?

The Louisiana Museum is a beautiful, famous modern art museum located north of Copenhagen.  It was just about the only thing I knew about Denmark when I first considered studying abroad here, so it’s safe to say that the anticipation has been building for quite a while!  And y’all, let me tell you—it did NOT disappoint.

I’ve been going back and forth about when I wanted to go for a while now, and finally it got to the point where I need to just buy my ticket and go or I wouldn’t get there at all.  I got my ticket through the combined DSB Rail & Museum Entrance ticket which is definitely the way to go.  It’s much cheaper than buying the two separately and so much easier as well!

Another tip if you’re planning to go?  Go early—and preferably on a weekday.  I got there when it opened—like I literally walked into the museum at 11:01am, I had to wait in line for them to open the gates—and for the first forty-five minutes I was there I passed a grand total of four people. Four.  In arguably one of the most famous museums in Denmark!  I had many of the exhibition rooms entirely to myself and could stand in front of the Picasso pieces as long as I pleased.

One of the best known attractions in the museum is the “Gleaming Lights of the Souls” installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.  It’s this crazy total-body experience and the website link above explains the details of it far better than I ever could.  Normally a maximum of four people can go in for a minute at a time…lucky for me, no one was waiting in line, so I got the room all to myself for as long as I wanted it!

One of my other favorite installations was Pamela Rosenkranz’s “Anamazon (Into the Land)” as part of the Being There exhibit.  When you walk into the exhibit room it first just seems like (to be blunt) a pile of dirt, lots of green lights, speakers, and jungle noises being piped in above.  But then you read the installation description and it ALL MAKES SENSE:

Pamela Rosenkranz’s installation Anamazon (Into the Land) is based on the homonym Amazon—the largest rainforest in the world and the world’s largest Internet company that has taken its name.  The installation, comprised of a range of components all bought online, forms a synthesized natural environment.  Super bright green and blue LED lights shapes a simplified drawing of the sky peeking through the branches and leaves of a big tree.  A large quantity of Amazon Echo speakers with the personal AI assistant named Alexa that reads the product names purchasable on Amazon starting with a capital A in alphabetical order while sounds from the Amazon rainforest are played in reverse.

The ventral component is a pile of Terra Preta soil, originally from the Amazon, now produced artificially.  In the artist’s rendering of a (un)natural landscape, we experience ourselves as completely removed from the natural environment that is transformed and punctuated by products.  Thereby, the artists challenges the prevalent distinctions between the natural and the cultural, the artificial and the synthetic.

Overall—my morning at the Louisiana was such a fun way to spend my last Wednesday here in Copenhagen!  Catch my next blog posts all having something to do with the fact that I’m in complete denial that I leave next week 🙃🙃🙃

Here’s some more pictures from various exhibits around the museum: