Using humour to ponder the future

COPENHAGEN – Picture a well-organized Greenlandic army, a tank-like attack-iceberg or a fleet of kayaks capable of launching missles.

These are some of the elements in a hilarious art exhibition, developed for the Home Rule government’s 25th anniversary, which looks at Greenland’s evolution into the “United States of Greenland.”

Greenland prides itself on being a country that’s never been at war, unlike Denmark or most other nations, but what would happen, this exhibition asks, if Greenland was independent and an imperialistic force in the world?

Called “Melting Barriers,” the exhibition’s title refers to what’s in store for Greenland when it becomes an independent nation and no longer has Denmark as a barrier against the outside world: what values will Greenlanders want to protect and how?

“Greenland! We are at war! At this moment the troops of Greenland are advancing…our troops are liberating the world with the message of peace and Greenlandicness…today Greenland has invaded the world to bring peace, prosperity and cold temperatures to everyone,” says a mock speech read at the opening of “Melting Barriers” in June.

“Attack is the best defence,” says a pretend Greenlandic officer in a video about the Greenlandic army.

An entire room, redesigned as a bunker, is crammed with the fake paraphernalia of an independent and expansionist Greenland.

Posters urge Greenlanders to join their armed forces. There’s a scale model of a giant iceberg or “ilu-attack” vehicle conquering Copenhagen, and a map of Denmark that makes Denmark look like Greenland with new Greenlandic place names.

Some materials also encourage Greenlanders to make babies, so Greenland and its army will flourish. A “love box”, available from the state, contains ingredients lovers might want: a candle, wine and chocolates.

All parts of the well-designed exhibition look startlingly realistic.

When artists Inuk Silis Hoegh and Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen went to Nuuk earlier this year to film videos to use in the exhibition, they drove around Nuuk in jeeps and military gear and set up a tent to hold a fake recruitment effort for new soldiers.

Some people took the entire performance seriously, were impressed by the show of military bravado and force, and were ready to sign up immediately.

That’s because irony isn’t used much in Greenland.

“If you say something you mean it,” says Hoegh, 32, the son of famed Greenlandic artist Aka Hoegh who is already well-known himself in Greenland as a filmmaker and artist.

Hoegh says the exhibition is simply intended to open up dicussion on issues.

“What will happen when Greenland doesn’t have Denmark as a pillow? What do we want?” Hoegh says.

The exhibition wasn’t meant to be an anti-war statement.

“But we are asking, when do we use force to enforce non-violence?”

The exhibition raised eyebrows in Nuuk, where it was part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Home Rule government, and then in Copenhagen where some Danish visitors didn’t understand its humour.

“Melting Barriers” is set up at Copenhagen’s new North Atlantic house, a recently-restored warehouse from the 1700s.

Once the hub for trade with for Denmark’s colonies, the North Atlantic House now provides space to government and tourism offices for Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and to the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat, which supplies support to the Arctic Council’s indigenous participants.

“North Atlantic House is a boost for cooperation between small, often-neglected nations of the far north like Greenland, which is reduced in people’s minds to being simply a place where the scenery is exotic and the climate is wild and harsh,” says Anna Maria Bogadottir from the North Atlantic House.

Bogadottir says the North Atlantic House is “an icebreaker,” opening up new opportunities in the old colonial capital.

After “Melting Barriers” closes in October, the materials will be put away for a few months, although the exhibition may eventually tour to other circumpolar venues.

Jane George was in Copenhagen, Denmark and Nuuk, Greenland earlier this month as a guest of the Nordic Council, a discussion forum for ministers from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark/Greenland, and a participant in its annual seminar for journalists.