In the winter of 2020, an anonymous art collective lowered a statue depicting Fredrik V in the canal.
The collective described the action as an art event in order to draw attention to Denmark's history of colonialism and slave labor under the said king's rule.
The plaster bust was deformed, a teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts who participated in the action was fired, and later the rector was also fired.
Now the Danish Minister of Culture Joy Mogensen (S) writes in a debate article in Jyllandsposten that the statue campaign is part of a larger problem: that art has become too academic.
She wants Danish art academies to focus less on theory and more on crafts.
- We were surprised.
She crosses a border and violates the principle of arm's length distance, says Gro Sarauw at the organization UKK, which brings together artists, curators and art mediators in Denmark.
The principle of arm's length distance is a democratic idea that politicians should not control what kind of culture is produced.
Academic - or activist?
Gro Sarauw perceives Joy Mogensen's (S) statements that art has become too "academic", as a paraphrase: that she actually refers to anti-racist art activism.
- The new art activism we see today, which revolves around minority issues and racism, the minister does not want to recognize as part of our time, says Gro Sarauw.
Kulturnyheterna has contacted Joy Mogensen (S) who did not have time to participate in this publication.
She has also had the opportunity to respond to the criticism in writing, but has not done so.
See more in the video.