Jan Jeppesen / Amager Life
Den Store Havfrue, “The Great Mermaid”
The controversy in Denmark has cracked the fate of a mermaid statue that will be removed from the public’s eyes – after being described as “ugly and pornographic” and “a man’s erotic dream about how a woman should be.”
The Danish Agency for Palaces and Culture will be considering the removal of the statue The Great Mermaid (The Great Mermaid) of the Dragør Fort, which is installed in the ancient seafarers of Copenhagen, for “not aligning with the cultural heritage of the 1910 Historical Framework.”
Mathias KrygerPolitiken’s art critic, classified the statue, with 4 by 6 meters and 14 tons, as “ugly and pornographic”And this is one of the most friendly criticism you have received.
The priest and journalist Sorine Gotfredsen wrote in the newspaper that “raise one Statue of a man’s erotic dream About how a woman should be hardly promoting the acceptance of many women from their own bodies. ”
“It is truly edifying that Many consider the vulgar statuenot poetic and undesirable, because we are suffocating with oppressive bodies in public space. ”
The author of the sculpture, Peter BYhe says he does not understand the criticism, stating that the breasts of the stone figure are simply “proportional”To its scale.
According to, many Danes consider that the criticism reflects the society attitudes in relation to bodies of women in general – and not positively. To Aminata Corr ThraneBerlingske Publisher, the Mermaid Breast Scrutiny equivalent to body humiliation.
“Naked female breasts have to have a specific academic shape and size to be able to appear in public? ” questioned.
Highlighting that the den Store Havfrue was “possibly a little less naked”Than her famous contemporary small bronze and granite, the little mermaid, Corr Thrane added:“ On the other hand, she has bigger breastsand it is probably Then the problem resides“.
“Perhaps the two statues – the big and the little mermaid – represent two sides of the woman, and The eternal struggle about what is a true woman. And maybe even what is a wrong woman, ”he noted.
In 2006, the statue was installed at the Langelinie pier in Copenhagen, near the small mermaid. But it was removed in 2018 after the places were reported as “fake and vulgar mermaid“.
It was at the time transferred to the Dragør Fort, until, in March, the Danish agency for palaces and culture intervened, requesting its removal. Peter Bech will also have decided donate the statue to the municipality of Dragør – who will have rejected the offer.
Speaking to Berlingske, Helle Barthchairman of the municipal climate and urbanism commission, explained that, although it was a friendly offer, “it is only Hard to fit. It occupies a lot of space“.
Bech, who said he had made the statue in response to Tourist Comments that the little mermaid – inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale – was too smallhe says that many dragør people tell you that they love their sculpture – and are trying to find a way to keep it in town.
