Most progressive highway sign (billboard) in Europe

Press release:

Dear

In Denmark, the most progressive highway sign (3x3 m) was set up in April at the E20 exit by Odense. It is the Danish artist Jens Galschiøt who has designed the sign, which also points towards his gallery.

On the sign, everyone is exposed to the artistic razor: China's attempt to erase the massacre of their own students in 1989, the Catholic Church's absurd contraception ban, the US's denial of climate change, the extreme double standards and arrogance of the Western world, the retreat of the Europeans from humanism, men and women’s roles in a queer time, and the powerlessness of the climate negotiations.

The artist says: "I am happy to live in a country where one can see the value in art about social criticism, as well as have it on an official Danish highway, and on the hometown of Danish poet Hans Christians Andersen also, who even used his adventures to put focus on the absurdity of society. Art must be used to create new insights into the world, and that is the kind of art that is on the sign”.

The signage cost about 50.000 euros. Galschiøt has got them with the help of art crowdfunding, for which he made a series of unique sculptures that were sold specifically to finance the signage. Within 14 days the sculptures were sold and the signage paid.

The sign captures Galschiøt’s entire universe of images and tells in the best way what you can experience by visiting Galleri Galschiøt. It shows the artist's seven most famous and controversial art-happenings, pictured in silhouette on the big motorway sign. They have each attracted a great deal of attention both nationally and internationally, and the works are included in countless newspapers, websites and books. The artist has thus been blacklisted permanently in China and deported from both Hong Kong and Mexico for the erection of the large pillar sculpture that appears in the centre of the sign.

Jens Galschiøt tells about the sign: I am especially pleased that the Chinese Pillar of Shame is on the sign, because it is the only memorial on Chinese soil (Hong Kong) that marks and commemorates the massacre of the students at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.

This year, it is exactly 30 years since the massacre took place and the Chinese system is trying to eradicate the memory of the atrocity by all means. So I think it is great to get the picture of this particular sculpture on the sign, to commemorate and rehabilitate the brave Chinese students who had to lay down their lives in 1989.

At the foot of the sculpture is a beautiful Chinese calligraphy that reads "the nation's trauma". Now the sign will be on the highway for the next 20 years and almost a billion cars will pass by it, and perhaps the passengers will send the Chinese students a loving thought and thus help remember this part of history.

The 7 sculptures depicted in the sign are all cut out as in silhouette and are quite recognizable if you have seen the sculptures before, but can be difficult to decode if you do not know Galschiøt’s works, but then there is little for the brain to work with. You can see the individual sculptures’ elements on the signs in the table below.

Galschiøt quote: I’m dreaming that electric vehicles of the future are driving past the sign, looking at the iconic sculptures, thinking: was China really a dictatorship once? – Did we use our civic rights to pollute the planet instead of taking care of it? – Were we so arrogant that we imagined that we could retain our humanism without sharing our wealth? – Did the more than 1 billion members of the Catholic Church have a ban on contraception and female priests? – And did we really believe that only 2 sexes existed, male and female and nothing in between? This would be fantastic, but unfortunately it would just be a dream. Many of the sculptures on the sign are more than 20 years old and at least as relevant as when I made them.

The reason why Galschiøt was found worthy of the 3x3 meter large sign is that his 10,000 m2 large area of galleries, working workshops, art schools and the sculpture park, is a very popular attraction in Denmark. On a daily basis, more than 100,000 cars will pass a sign pointing in the direction of our gallery.

In the table below, all the sculptures are depicted both in silhouette and in their original form with a text explaining what the works are for.

Loving spring greetings

The gallerists at the gallery Galschiot

Information / videos and photos are freely available on our webpage:

Contact Jens Galschiøt and Galleri Galschiøt: aidoh@aidoh.dk - tel. 0045 66184058 or 0045 40447058

Video: Hongkong activists wash tiananmen massacre monument ahead 30^th anniversary

Contact Honkkong: phone number is 852-27826111 Hong Kong Alliance

What’s on the brown sign?

The sculptures on the sign from the left:

	‘‘Survival of the fattest’, 2012 – The original sculpture is of copper and 3 meters tall. A giant overweight justice goddess (Justitia) with her scales in her hand on top of a starved man. Her motto is “I sit on the back of a man – he is about to collapse under my burden – I will do everything to help him except to step down from his back.” The sculpture is a commentary on the sense of justice of the Western world, where we have much of the wealth on earth, while preaching democracy, equality, freedom and brotherhood without sharing with others. The sculpture stands in both in the Danish city Ringkøbing and Galschiøt’s workshop and is one of his most famous sculptures.
	‘H.C. Andersen in a queer time’, 2012 – The original sculpture is 2 meters tall, and is a sculptural commentary on the academic discussion on the reading of the most famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s works with a queer perspective. The sculpture is composed of two classic sculptures the “Venus de Milo” and Bissen’s(DK) “H.C. Andersen’s portrait” from 1864 and shows Andersen’s feminine sides and discusses how he could have reacted to a time when it is not unusual to flirt with his gender identity… The sculpture created much debate as it was launched in connection with a large collection for breast cancer
	Unbearable’, 2015 – The original sculpture is 7x3x10 meters and was made for the climate summit Cop 21 in Paris. It consists of a giant scientific graph about CO2 accumulation over the past 300 years. Speared on the graph is a polar bear hanging at a height of 7 meters. It has, since Paris, been set up in front of the Danish Parliament, at Cop 23, in Bonn and countless other places.
	The Pillar of Shame (1995) the sculpture is 9 meters high and made to mark and remember massacres and abuses in the world. The first sculpture marked the massacre of Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) Square in June 4, 1989, when students were killed by the Chinese military and tanks, who crushed the dream of democracy and human rights in China. There were over 100,000 participants when the sculpture was erected permanently in Hong Kong in 1997, just before Hong Kong was taken over by China. It now stands at the Hong Kong University and is protected by 10,000 students and is the only memorial there is about the massacre on Chinese soil. The setting up of the sculpture cost Galschiøt a permanent entry ban in China and two times an expulsion from Hong Kong. This year (2019) is the 30th anniversary of the massacre, and therefore Galschiøt chose that this sculpture should be in the centre of the sign to honour the memory of the students. On the sculpture, one of the most famous poets in China, Szeto Wah, has made a very beautiful calligraphy, which reads "The nation's trauma". The Pillar of Shame is also set up in Mexico and Brazil.
	‘Freedom to Pollute’, 2002 – A 6 meter tall Statue of Liberty that sends up pillars of smoke from her torch. In the constitution she holds in her hand, the text was changed to “Freedom to Pollute”. The sculpture has been included in countless art manifestations around the world to put focus on the Western world’s demands for freedom of growth and senseless consumption, no matter what the consequences are for our shared planet.
	In the name of God’, 2007– 6 feet tall crucified pregnant teenager. The sculpture focuses on the fact that the Catholic Church has introduced a ban on contraception (and sexual education). The Catholic Pope John Paul II from Poland introduced the absurd dogma that God has determined that when a man and woman are sexually united, there must be the possibility of getting pregnant, “preventing this is outrageous and equivalent to 1000 abortions every time you have sex”. This prohibition of contraception applies to all, both inside and outside of marriage, and to all forms of contraception and is still valid for over one billion Catholics. The contraception ban has been catastrophic in many countries, as it becomes impossible for them to have birth control and prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Especially many teenagers have become pregnant due to the ban. The sculpture has stood in front of the cathedral in Copenhagen and been set up in Kenya, Germany, Brazil and Nicaragua, and it is part of many books on Christianity and sexual education.
	My Inner Beast’, 1993– In November 1993, 22 pieces, each one ton heavy and 3 meters high sculptures were set up in extensive parts of Europe. This is one of the greatest art happening / street art works ever made on European soil. All the sculptures were erected illegally within 2 days and over 100 people helped with the project. This was Galschiot’s first happening in public, and he made it to shed light on the fact that after the fall of the Berlin Wall we faced tipping points in our history, after which immigration will be greatly increased due to the social imbalance. Either we shared our wealth and created a social and economic balance in Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, so that the people could have a future in their own countries, or we built a new wall around Europe to keep the others out of our territory. Galschiøt said that if we chose the new wall, we would enter into a (new) brutalisation and lose the basic principles of European civilization of freedom, equality and brotherhood. The text “Don’t feed your inner beast” is engraved on the sculptures. They are part of a number of art collections and are used in many contexts.