Hanan Benammar: This is Our Body

Can art facilitate a space for dialogue and healing while confronting history? What do monuments signify both in history and as art objects with their potential inherent traumatic narratives? How can rituals be based on a conflicted legacy?

Join us for the premiere of Hanan Benammar’s new film This is Our Body which documents a performance that was part of the Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival in 2021. The performance marked the 300th anniversary of Hans Egede’s arrival to Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland and Hanan Benammar will introduce the film herself.

Hans Egede grew up in the northern Norwegian town Harstad, and the spectacular performance took place in and around the church Trondenes Kirke where he was baptized. To this day, Harstad Church remembers him with an altarpiece that shows him in Greenland and a statue outside the church.

According to Benammar, Hans Egede is recognized in Norway to this day as a fearless adventurer and a wise man. At the same time, his violations of the indigenous population are well documented as it has been pointed out that he banned several local traditions among the Inuit such as tattooing, shamanism and throat singing.

With This is Our Body Hanan Benammar seeks to strengthen the collective awareness of our common history and form a point of view that can create space for knowledge and criticism.

The event is part of Art in a Day, Copenhagen’s new one-day festival that focuses on performance art. The festival took place on 24^th of June this year, but the six art centres behind it continuously host events that examine the potential of performance art today.

The talk is in English and admission is free.