Week One Reflection 

“The water remembers”... Though I didn’t expect it at the time, the introductory statement by Barley from the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts, set a precedent for this first week. Growing up I have always felt at home in the water, whether it was swimming in the oceans with my family, being told that I have “viking blood” in me, or even just getting to sit by a body and feel like it is endless. This being said, Barley’s remembrance of the immigrants and slaves lost to the sea set a tone for this first week and every activity within regardless of if it dealt with Colonialism or public art. We started the week (as aforementioned) with Barley, an incredible artist from Ghana, whose most recent work of art is a cinematographic masterpiece reflecting on how the water is a symbol of immigrant struggles and the fight to open global borders. Watching this video I recognized that water does feel endless, and I realized that there is more than coincidence that water holds energetic complexities beyond what we can comprehend. With that seed of a thought in my mind, we began our journey. The next activity that followed was a walking tour around Copenhaegen accompanied by audio recordings of colonial histories often overlooked. It felt almost like fate to see sculptures of colonized figures silhouetted by the harbor, trading companies reflected in the water, and a voice reminding us of the bodies left to the sea hidden by swirls of “indigo and green”. The following day I walked to Ofelia Plads and hopped into the little bay and let my mind reflect on its importance. The next event we got to experience was the incredible insight of postdoc Karen Siberstein. Though her presentation focused on policy and discussions behind reparations and acknowledgement from colonial powers, I noticed that her enhancement of the complexities of colonialism reflected a flow of globalization. A flow just like water. Powers change, boundaries alter, and the question of colonizer versus colonized gets blurred as we ignore history yet strive to move on. I grew to appreciate her perspective on reparations as I felt it recognized how the waves of time causes accuracy, truth, and ownership to blur in the sands of the contemporary. This ideology along with Barley’s commentary of the importance of water was only magnified more when we went to see “Voices of the Colonies" at the National Museum. Specifically, I found the cases of shells and gems from beaches around the globe, were a fantastic metaphor for colonization and resource exploitation as it relates to the historic and modern  desire to own the seas. The next day (possibly my favorite so far) I started off my morning taking in the breeze by docks across from Nyhavn. I did this not only from a place of personal health, but because it casts a perfect gaze upon our next stop, The West Indian warehouse. This historic building has become a melting pot of the past. It holds the elaborate Danish collection of cast statues, the wardrobe of the Royal Theatre with clothes dating back to the 1700s, and most importantly to our studies “the room where it happened”. The room overlooking the harbor in order to monitor each slave ship and trading vessel as it entered Denmark’s waters. There were a few specific elements of this tour that struck me in association to this thematic usage of water. First was the discussion of Denmark's current colonization of Greenland and how it relates to Denmark being powerful on a global scale. Henrick, a PhD in art history, initiates this colonial topic by saying “We had control of the seas” and finishes it with the all too powerful reality of “[If Denmark loses Greenland] they lose the waters to the North Pole and global trade” further insinuating the importance of water from an economic perspective. The next element was his discussion of the giant window overlooking the sea in order to calculate, in a way, incoming Danish Wealth. This uncharacteristically large window with what used to be an uninterrupted view of the water, is now impeded by white tents and urbanization, and sets up a perfectly metaphorical discussion of how the histories of the water, colonial cruelties, and corruption are being forgotten. The final element of the tour that struck me, was the point in which Henrick reveals the custom of throwing sick slaves overboard before death in order to maximize the survival rates on ship, and further enhance profit. It struck me then the amount of spirits that have been laid to rest in the sea, and how currently there are immigrant bodies succumbing to the ocean that are being ignored. Looking out the massive colonial window, I reflected that the waters I looked upon beheld the souls of history, evil, and humans who deserved a life. 

Friday arrived and we got another assortment of museums. The first being Copenhagen City museum. Though I didn’t initially find a connection to water in the same magnitude as prior trips, I was able to fully grasp the importance of access to the sea and other waterways within Danish culture. Looking at the map of Copenhagen you notice proximity to water is everywhere. Whether it is the harbor, the ocean, or even just manmade lakes, you can’t help but understand the pride Danes take in their “Viking like” connection to “Vand”, but you also wonder what lies and secrets have been told to make them ignorant to the violent histories their water holds. Following a delicious traditional Danish food lunch, we as a class wandered (more like ran) over to Cisternerne. For me, Cisternerne acted as the final solidifier of the theme for this week. Cisternerne… an old water reservoir turned museum/art gallery. If the fates could have aligned on this theme better, I would be shocked. You enter this underground cavern and are immersed in darkness, relieving cold, and the sounds of dripping water. You round a corner and the water on the ground, the darkness of the room, and a singularly placed light illuminates a prism of color. You are walking through a rainbow labyrinth. Once going through, I sat down and listened to Kimsooja’s background and her inspiration for the art she portrayed. I was struck when she mentioned the colors not only representing elements, but the cardinal directions. How convenient is it that this display of water reflections can be incorporated into global travel and navigation used on the seven seas? How symbolic that water being the biggest relic to our global history of mistakes, violence, exploration, and tragedy, be reflected for us at the closure of our first week?