Voices in the Shadows of Monuments – an audio-visual walk

In the wake of the major Black Lives Matter demonstrations world-wide, there has been a growing international attention to the issue of monuments commemorating the colonial era and their impact in public spaces today.

Voices in the Shadows of Monuments is an audio-visual city walk that examines material traces from the colonial era embedded in buildings and monuments in the centre of Copenhagen, from the time when the Port of Copenhagen was the centre of Danish colonial trade.

The walk takes participants from Christianshavns Torv to Kongens Nytorv, creating a polyphonic soundscape accompanied by graphic light projections. The artists create narratives that intertwine different geographies and times: past and present interweave and testify to how colonialism is not a closed chapter, but still has strong reverberations in the present. During the walk, the audience is invited to assemble the
fragments they are presented with into new narratives about the city.

The walk ends at Kgs Nytorv, after which audiences are invited to visit Kunsthal Charlottenborg. To accompany the tour In the Shadows of Monuments, the Kunsthal presents a video-art programme in the Charlottenborg Art Cinema, curated by the artist group, featuring video art by some of the artists, who have made contributions to the walk, as well as other artists, who explore the legacies of colonialism today.

Voices in the Shadows of Monuments is created by artists Barly Tshibanda, Nanna Katrine Hansen and Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld in collaboration with Jupiter J. Child, La Vaughn Belle, Sabitha Söderholm, Oceana James,  Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Julie Edel Hardenberg,
and Arash Pandi.

To further contextualize the walk Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s bookstore will offer a selection of literature as picked by the artist group behind the audio-visual walk.

The audio-visual walks are created in collaboration with the Copenhagen Light Festival and will take place as follows:
February 10: 17:30 – 19:00, tickets
February 17: 18:00 – 19:30, tickets
February 24: 18:00 – 19:30, tickets

Participation is free. Remember to sign up via billetto (links above).

The walk starts at: Christianshavns Torv
Language: English with Danish, Greenlandic, Portuguese, Sanskrit and more.
Duration: 1 hour and 30 min.

Sound transmitters and headphones are provided at the beginning of the walk. We encourage participants to bring their own headphones with minijack for an improved sound experience.

The project is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, Copenhagen Light Festival and Kunsthal Charlottenborg.