The first art-exhibition with The Children of Abraham project including the sculpture Fundamentalism has now ended. We take a look at how it all went down.

For 92 days it was exhibited at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad with lots of positive reactions and reflections. We see this as a sign of the relevance of the exhibition and the project.

13,499 guests visited the exhibition. It is more than twice as many as the Art Centres average number of visitors. Opposite the trend, this exhibition attracted more and more visitors as the rumor about it spread. Thus the exhibition site had to hire additional personnel to man the restaurant and make tours.

 Over 50 school groups were shown round the exhibition, while numerous other schools visited without a tour. On the whole, the exhibition and the project were used in a large number of schools as a starting point for nuanced and including discussions about religions.

5 Pillars of Scripture-sculptures were exhibited at various cultural and educational institutions. They ensured that the debate came out of the art institution and into schools and libraries.

TV, Radio, Blogs and newspapers covered the exhibition. See Media Overview (in Danish I´m afraid), while visitors wrote 1520 comments about the exhibition on scraps of paper – gathered here (in Danish too I´m afraid – after exhibiting at EU we will have some in other languages)!

The future of the art- and dialogue project and the Fundamentalism sculpture

The sculpture is now placed at Galschiots art-workshop in Odense. We are preparing it for installation by the EU Parliament in October this year. For that we need 28 monitor screens which are brighter and protected against rain, wind and vandalism. We are also working a number of future exhibitions in Denmark and abroad.

If you have just the right place for exhibiting the Fundamentalism-sculpture. A place that is ready and willing to start a constructive dialogue about the monotheistic religions, you are more than welcome to contact them or give us a hint.

 Fundamentalism-sculpture at the EU  

MEP Bendt Bendtsen from the EU parliament has assembled a group of 28 parliamentarians with representatives from the various groups in the EU parliament. The 28 MPs have applied to exhibit The Children of Abraham art project by the EU parliament in Brussels. Inside the parliament 10 minor Pillar of Scriptures–sculptures are to be exhibited – each showing the brightest and darkest quotes from the Torah, the Bible and the Quran in 8 different languages. The big Fundamentalism sculpture is to be placed at the public Luxemburg square just in front of the parliament. The sculpture also shows the religious quotations.

The art-exhibition is to take place week 42-43 in October this year. We hope!

Normally the parliamentarians have the right to a certain number of exhibitions at the parliament, and usually it happens without discussions. But because of the tense situation due to the recent terrorist attacks and the sculptures´ focus the dark and bright sides of religions and our wish to start a dialogue about religious fundamentalism, the art exhibition is being discussed at the highest levels in the parliaments Bureau. Here they are debating whether to allow Galschiots exhibition or not.  

This is a bit ironic, as the Children of Abraham-project is meant to start an including dialogue which build bridge between the religions and tries to prevent religious fundamentalism and extremism. If the EU Bureau denies the exhibition it will be serious blow to artistic freedom of expression in the EU which will start a lot of debate.

MEP Bendt Bendtsen is a little baffled by this. After all, it is a very peaceful work of art despite the subject. He believes that it is a matter of freedom of expression for parliamentarians and expects that the Bureau with Martin Schulz in charge agrees to the exhibition.

For further information contact Bendt Bendtsen's office in the EU Parliament:

MEP Bendt BENDTSEN -Rue Wiertz B-1047 Brussels, ASP 10E114
Tel: +32 2 28 47125
Email: bendt.bendtsen-office@europarl.europa.eu

 Unbearable sculpture. Polar bear speared on 5 meter high climate graph

Water is rising, climate is changing and COP21 is getting nearer. In November/December 2015 the world leaders meet in Paris for the crucial climate conference COP21. So far the world and its leaders have failed miserably in changing the CO2 emission that is going to shape our futures in unimaginable and rather scary ways.

We plan to use art to bring attention to the future climate catastrophe. The sculpture Unbearable depicts a large polar bear in copper which is placed at the end of a 20-meter graph, which shows the emission of CO2 from year 0 until today. The graph ends in a very sharp increase in 5 meters height and here the polar bear is hanging.

The 20 meter graph shows a sudden increase in greenhouse gases which starts around year 1850 making it quite clear that we humans are responsible for the increase in

We plan to fund the sculpture via crowdfunding as it is rather expensive in material, work force and transport. In this way we will rally support for the project from individuals all over the world. In return, when supporting the project, one gets a miniature sculpture of the polar bear or a poster – all depending on amount donated. We are very excited to see how it goes.  

The sculpture is presented this November at COP21 in Paris.

550 + 1 - a 60 meter long sculpture with focus on trafficking.  

The 60-meter-long sculpture 550 + 1 shows a long, long line of naked male copper torsos standing in one 60 meter line. At first glance the sculpture looks beautiful and aesthetic. But as one nears the end of the 550 naked male torsos one sees that the 551th torso is a nude woman with spread legs.

The 550 male torsos represent the number of men an average Nigerian prostitute is "servicing" in Copenhagen in one single year!

Thus, the sculpture is an illustration of one year in a prostitute's life, opening up for a debate about human trafficking and prostitution.

The sculpture is presented at the People's Summit in Bornholm, Denmark, June 11-14 and it will also be exhibited at the major international women's conference "Women Deliver" in Copenhagen in 2016.  

Galschiøt occupies the biscuit tins.

Galschiot has finally received the ultimate recognition! His sculptures can now be seen on biscuit tins along with some of Denmark most remarkable monuments. (Biscuits are one of the most "Danish" commodities – they are sort of connected to the fairytale-story of Denmark with castles, small houses and H.C.Andersen who wrote The Little Mermaid and other known fairytales.)    

The cookie company has asked if they could use Galschiots statue of Hans Christian Andersen on their new cookie tin collection where the most important Danish memorials are included. And as we like the idea of being compared to the most important Danish monuments and we couldn’t stand for the delicious cookies inside the tins, we chose to say yes. We have been eating them ever since.

Some of Galschiots fine art colleagues probably see it as a sign that Galschiøt has become too popular and banal. Galschiot himself thinks that it is an expression of great popular impact (and that it is quite funny). He is, though, sad that his mother is dead, as she would have been so proud, showing the biscuit tin at her nursing home!

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