“Ugly and pornographic.” Intense debate arising around a controversial statue, to be removed, in a state in northern Europe
In Denmark there was a heated debate around a statue representing a mermaid, which is to be removed from the public space after being cataloged as “ugly and pornographic” and “the hot dream of a man about how a woman should look.”
The Danish Palace and Culture Agency would remove the Den Store Havfrue (the Syrian) statue, from the Dragør Fort, the former Copenhagen Maritime Fortifications System, on the grounds that it does not align with the cultural heritage of the historical monument of 1910, according to The Guardian.
The art critic of the Politiken publication, Mathias Kryger, described the statue as “ugly and pornographic.” For her part, the priestess and journalist Sorine Gotfredsen wrote in the Berlingske newspaper that “raising a statue representing a man's hot dream of what a woman should look like does not have much chance to help women accept her own body.”
“It is truly encouraging that many consider the vulgar statue, because we suffocate in ostentatious bodies,” she continued.
The artist behind the 14 -ton sculpture, Peter Bech, said he did not understand the criticisms, claiming that the statue breasts are simply “proportional to its size.”
The statue of Den Store Havfrue (the Syrian sea). Photo: Dimitry Bobroff/Alamy
Others have stated that these reactions actually reflect the attitude of society towards the woman's body, and not in a positive way. For the aminata Corr Thrane, an opinion editor in Berlingske, the siren's focus is equivalent to Body Shaming.
“Do you have to have a woman's bare breasts and size, academically accepted, to be considered appropriate to appear in the public space?” She wrote.
Noting that the Syrian sea is “probably less naked” than its famous bronze and granite miniature variant, the small mermaid, the delayed Corr Thrane added: “On the other hand, it has bigger breasts, and probably the problem begins.”
She continued: “Perhaps the two statues, the great and small mermaid, represent two facets of femininity and the eternal struggle about what a true woman means. And, maybe what a wrong woman means.”
In 2006, the Grand mermaid was located on the launch of Langelinie in Copenhagen, near the small mermaid. But it was removed in 2018, after the locals denounce it as “false and vulgar mermaid”.
Subsequently, the statue was moved to Fort Dragør, where it remained until, in March, the Danish Palace and Culture Agency intervened and demanded its removal. Since then, the municipality of Dragør would have refused Peter Bech's offer to donate the statue for free.
Helle Barth, the chairman of the Commission for Climate, Urbanism and Business of the municipality of Dragør, told Berlingske that, although the offer is appreciated, “it is simply difficult to integrate. It occupies a lot of space.”
Peter Bech, who said he made the statue as a reaction to the comments of the tourists that the small mermaid, inspired by the fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen, is too small, claims that many inhabitants in Dragør told him that they like sculpture. He hopes to find a solution for it to stay in the locality.
The Danish Palace and Culture Agency refused to comment.
Photo: © Mohammed Anwar Kabir Choudhury | Dreamstime.com
