A Ring of Empty Pedestals Marks the Lack of Women in Copenhagen’s Public Art
In the new public art project “50 Queens,” vacant columns highlight the absence of memorials depicting women throughout Denmark.
Fifty vacant pedestals in Copenhagen suggest where statues of women should go.
Photographer: Laurent de CarniereAmong the cherry blossoms and herbaceous borders of the King’s Garden at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen stand dozens of monuments — statues to myths, legends, poets and regents from Danish culture and history. And one woman: Queen Caroline Amalie of Augustenburg.
That memorial was erected in 1893, a few years after the queen’s death. The next statue built for a real woman, not a fictional character, was dedicated to Nathalie Zahle, an education reformer, 23 years later in Ørstedsparken. “And then,” writes Danish columnist Anne Sophia Hermansen, “it was the end of statues of women in Copenhagen for the next 100 years.”