In Copenhagen, the city that saw the iconic story of “La Merenita” by Hans Christian Andersen, a monumental and controversial older sister of the famous statue is about to be banished. ‘The Great Siren’ (The Great Mermaid), An imposing metal and stone sculpture will be removed from its site in the strong dragor after being qualified as “Pornographic” and alien to the historical environment that welcomes it. The decision, promoted by the own Danish Palacios and Culture Agencymarks the climax of a long controversy that has faced artistic freedom with public sensitivity and heritage protection, leaving in the air an intense debate about the limits of art in the public space. The work, which has been rejected by its own community, says goodbye without a clear destination, wrapped in accusations of vulgarity and an artistic defense that has failed to convince the authorities.
A monumental work in the eye of the hurricane
The decision to withdraw sculpture has not been sudden, but the result of growing institutional and critical pressure. The Danish Palacios and Culture Agency It has been the entity that has formally requested its dismantling, arguing that the work, with its impressive dimensions of 4 meters wide by 6 high and a weight of 14 tons, “does not align with the Cultural Heritage of the 1910 monument “where this official justification underlines a fundamental conflict: the insertion of a piece of contemporary art in an environment protected with a very defined aesthetic and historical meaning. The refusal of the municipality of Dragor to accept the donation of the work by its creator, the artist the artist Peter BYit is a forceful evidence of the deep rejection generated by the piece in the official sphere.
The controversy It has been fed by influential voices in the Danish cultural debate. Mathias Kryger, an outstanding news critic of the newspaper Politicshe did not hesitate to qualify the statue as “ugly and pornographic”, a direct verdict that resonated in public opinion. To this criticism was added the journalist and priest Sorine Gorfredsen, who offered a feminist perspective by ensuring that erecting “the erotic dream of a man” does not contribute to women accepting their own body. Gorfredsen went further, affirming that he is “encouraging” that the work is considered “vulgar, unhealthy and undesirable”, because, in his words, society is “suffocating in authoritarian bodies in the public space“.
The artist’s defense against a rejection history
In front of the avalanche of criticism, the sculptor Peter BY He has expressed his perplexity and has defended his creation. In statements to British media, the artist explained that he does not understand the accusations of pornographic content, insisting that the forms of his siren, including his prominent stone breasts, are simply “of a proportional size” to the monumental scale of the sculpture. For Bech, the controversy is based on a misinterpretation of its artistic vision, which sought to create a powerful version already a large scale of the mythical figure, in contrast to the delicacy and reduced size of the famous Little Mermaid Original de Edvard Eriksen.
However, this is not the first rejection episode that suffers ‘The Great Siren’. The sculpture was created in 2006 and its initial location was deliberately provocative: it was installed on the Langelinie dock, very close to the iconic and beloved Little Mermaid original. This proximity was seen by many as an attempt to eclipse or parody the national symbol. The coexistence lasted until 2018, when the pressure of the neighbors, who denounced it as a “false and vulgar siren”, forced its transfer to the strong Dragor. Far from finding peace, this new location has only served to revive the controversy and seal its destiny. The case of ‘The Great Siren’ thus becomes a study on the fragile relationship between art, public opinion and Artistic censorship evening, raising the question of who has the final authority to decide which works deserve our common spaces.
