Copenhagen Cathedral on Fire
17/09/07 12:28
- A symbolic monument to the terror of the past
September 1st - 11th, 2007
Copenhagen Cathedral
Nørregade 8
DK - 1165 København K.
City on Fire
On September 1st, 2007, a radical and spectacular art exhibition opens in the Church of Our Lady: The Danish-Argentinean artist duo Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz will set Copenhagen Cathedral on fire. Or rather: the vaults and the altar section – with Thorvaldsen´s world renowned and moving sculpture of Christ – will serve as projection surfaces for video projections showing a violent fire, that will be ’ignited’ every night between September 1st – 11th.
Copenhagen Cathedral on Fire is part of Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz´ international, aesthetic manifestation City on Fire. Around the end of the year 2005 the duo exhibited their first installations in Rome at the Danish Institute and the Trevi Fountain respectively. It was not a coincidence that Rome became the first setting for the project, seeing that the city possesses a significant symbolic value, that is closely related to the intentions of City on Fire.
The subtitle of the first ‘burnings’ – and later also of the installation ARoS on Fire, which was shown in Aarhus in January 2007 – was ”Burning the Roots of Western Culture”; and even if City on Fire is not meant as a political but rather as an aesthetic manifesto, the work contains at its core a fundamental wish to direct attention to the destruction that is a latent part of Western culture. This is also emphasized by the installation Copenhagen Cathedral on Fire, which marks the bicentennial of the English bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.
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September 1st - 11th, 2007
Copenhagen Cathedral
Nørregade 8
DK - 1165 København K.
City on Fire
On September 1st, 2007, a radical and spectacular art exhibition opens in the Church of Our Lady: The Danish-Argentinean artist duo Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz will set Copenhagen Cathedral on fire. Or rather: the vaults and the altar section – with Thorvaldsen´s world renowned and moving sculpture of Christ – will serve as projection surfaces for video projections showing a violent fire, that will be ’ignited’ every night between September 1st – 11th.
Copenhagen Cathedral on Fire is part of Thyra Hilden & Pio Diaz´ international, aesthetic manifestation City on Fire. Around the end of the year 2005 the duo exhibited their first installations in Rome at the Danish Institute and the Trevi Fountain respectively. It was not a coincidence that Rome became the first setting for the project, seeing that the city possesses a significant symbolic value, that is closely related to the intentions of City on Fire.
The subtitle of the first ‘burnings’ – and later also of the installation ARoS on Fire, which was shown in Aarhus in January 2007 – was ”Burning the Roots of Western Culture”; and even if City on Fire is not meant as a political but rather as an aesthetic manifesto, the work contains at its core a fundamental wish to direct attention to the destruction that is a latent part of Western culture. This is also emphasized by the installation Copenhagen Cathedral on Fire, which marks the bicentennial of the English bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.
Read More...