“Under the Sun": When life choices shape landscape and climate"
Director Anne Bjerrekær in the exhibition UNDER THE SUN
On June 28, The Green Museum will open its largest exhibition to date: Under the Sun– A story about the last 80 years of the pursuit of the good life.
Here, the audience is invited on a thought-provoking and sensory journey through the past 8 decades of development and changes within hunting, forestry, agriculture and food. How have mechanization, prosperity and welfare influenced our choices and values – and what has this meant for climate, biodiversity and forms of life?
“We have chosen to look back in order to look forward,” says director Anne Bjerrekær. “Knowledge of the past gives us understanding and the power to act, and we believe that history can give us the courage to make better choices for the future.”
An exhibition with objects, stories and luminous reflections
With 850 m² of exhibition space, a budget of DKK 18 million and a high degree of recycled materials, Under the Sun is the Green Museum's most ambitious exhibition to date. It has been created together with the Danish architectural firm JAC Studios in consortium with Dutch Heijmerink-Wagemakers. The exhibition is generously supported by AP Møller and Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller's Foundation for General Purposes with DKK 11 million, the Augustinus Foundation with DKK 2 million and the Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik's Foundation with DKK 100,000.
“We are deeply grateful for the generous support from the three foundations, which has made it possible to realize the large signature exhibition that we dreamed of. It is a huge vote of confidence in the museum's work and vision. Without their support, we would not have had the opportunity to gather the history of hunting, forests, agriculture and food into one unified story about our common future.”, says director Anne Bjerrekær.
The exhibition features a wide range of iconic and thought-provoking objects that together tell the story of a changing Denmark – as the world's population triples and our needs leave their mark on the landscape. A pair of fox shears and a cage from the heyday of egg production, a tree that was hugged in the pursuit of inner balance and presence – and a Squash advertisement from the 1980s, where food and lifestyle became entertainment. The objects show how our choices and values have evolved over eight decades.
5 meter large sun in the center
Above the exhibition, a five-meter-high and luminous sun floats – a sensual and poetic installation that links today’s choices to the fundamental conditions of the universe and nature. Six very different people have added sound/voices to the Sun: musician Karen Makuba, farmer Claus Fenger, bioethicist Mickey Gjerris, musician Bisse, astrophysicist Michael Linden-Vørnle and poet Marie Trier Schleidt.
Through film, the audience encounters personal stories from both well-known and unknown Danes – e.g. Claus Meyer, Michael Svarer, climate activists and female hunters – that give voice to questions about responsibility, consumption, quality of life and hope. All of this is conveyed with a mix of sensory installations, reflection and interactive elements that invite guests to both immerse themselves and converse.
