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MY GREAT GRANDFATHER [2005]
 
Installation View, Kyunghee University Museum of Art, South Korea
Mockumentary, splitscreen.
Carl Nielsen was part of a nationalistic, artistic movement around the 19th century, that tried to
go back to the old Danish folk songs to find essential traits of Danish culture. He wrote the national
anthem and edited different song- and psalm books, that are still being used today. The context was
the dispute over land with Germany, and there was a tendency to gather around national pride. Still
loved and played today, Carl Nielsens songs and music stands for many Danish people as something
truly nordic and Danish. Although being a construction in its own time. Recently, the Danish govern-
ment issued a culture canon, stating that Carl Nielsen was part of essential Danish culture. Although
music professionals argue, that there is nothing that technically can define an isolated Danish musical
style.
In this video, I stage myself as Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Brodersen´s biological great-grandchild.
By this claim to Danish cultural history and identity, the questions of heritage, being that of blood, culture,
history or mythology, arises.
(Anne Marie Brodersen was also an artist and student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, as myself)
Year: 2007
Duration: 7:25 minutes
Camera and Sound: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Interviwer: Suada Demirovic
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