The Light

(Lyset, Alexander Lind, Denmark, 2023)

The Light is a fast-paced, exhaustively researched documentary recreating what will be, for many viewers, a forgotten or unknown episode in contemporary art: the ferocious public controversy surrounding the 1995 “Peace Sculpture” installation created by Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen to commemorate Denmark’s liberation from Nazi occupation.

By linking up at night, in a single laser beam, the 6,000 leftover war bunkers along the west coast of Denmark, the project highlighted a troubling ambiguity in the nation’s collective memory: are these constructions a sign of historic collaboration with the Nazis? How are they best understood? The project set out neither to criticise nor celebrate, but to literally shine a light on this complexity.

Surviving members of the Danish resistance inaugurated a campaign of opposition to the project, spreading like wildfire through the Danish Parliament and mass media. Alexander Lind highlights for our time what was perhaps (?) not so glaringly evident in 1995: the astonishing sexism involved in this public vituperation.

As then-Minister of Culture Jytte Hilden points out, “If you want to discredit women, say that they’re friends”. Death threats, physical attacks on the artwork, and ideological denunciations ensued. Ejdrup’s own career in the artworld was blocked for two decades, until a recent, salutary resurgence.

© Adrian Martin 18 December 2023