The Meeting

The sculpture “The Meeting” is about the importance of meeting. It is the result of a citizen initiative in 2021 and was approved in June 2022 by the Copenhagen City Council, who thus accepted it as a gift to the city. This was followed by a long process of applications for funds. The project received support from Altinget.dk, Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s foundation, Grosserer L.F. Foght’s foundation, and Lizzie and Ejler Ruge’s foundation. During 2023, I made several sketch models in one-third and one-half size to model the figure group in full scale. In the summer of 2024, Skulpturstøberiet Svendborg could begin casting the bronze figure itself, and stonemason Schannong made the base, which is made of red Vånga granite. Scheller, Hougaard& Petersen contractor and landscaper and BAYO.S Skruefundamenter ApS have constructed the foundation and the Municipality of Copenhagen has laid paving on the square with a slight slope towards the sculpture

Specifically, the sculpture is inspired by the Mannerist painting The Visitation, an Altarpiece in the Baroque Church Chiesa Nuova in Rome, executed in the 1580s by the Italian painter Federico Barocci, which I became aware of at the exhibition The Creation of the Artwork at the National Gallery of Denmark. Several drawn drafts and preparations by Barocci were shown here. The motif is so simple, Elisabeth and Maria meeting on a staircase. There is something in that meeting, the way they hold each other’s hands and look at each other that I am deeply fascinated by, the way the somewhat older Elisabeth stands at the top, expressing welcome, and Maria steps up towards Elisabeth. There is something so fundamentally simple and straightforward in their meeting. I have made several smaller sculptures where it is two mythical creatures who meet in the same way. This in a search for the most essential in the situation, where it is not important that it is two women or two important figures in Christianity who meet, but the meeting itself. To emphasize the universality of the situation, here are two mythical creatures who meet each other. Since the sculpture has no base besides the granite staircase, the sculpture will be open to dialogue with the viewer who can sit on the steps and interact with the two.

On the base is engraved: “IN THE MEETING WE EMERGE”

Sketch for Benjamin Schou tombstone

The then 18-year-old Benjamin Christian Schou was on New Year’s Eve 1992 in the City Hall Square in Copenhagen. At 0.20 Schou was arrested and placed in a leg lock. The police’s rationale for arresting and placing Schou in a leg lock was the police’s view that Schou had thrown bottles at them and then tried to escape.

Three officers lay on top of Benjamin. One of them pressed his knee hard against his back, while another tugged at his scarf. He was placed in a leg lock and carried into a police vehicle, after which he was taken to the local police station. Upon arrival, police officers found him unconscious and began heart lung resuscitation on him. During the transport, however, he had suffered a cardiac arrest, and although the policemen revived him, the brain had been without oxygen for so long that Benjamin Schou was brain damaged. Later he was declared 100% disabled. Benjamin Schou did not regain consciousness and lived in a nursing home, where he died on the night of September 5, 2008; at the age of almost 35 years.

Benjamin Schou is buried at Holmens Kirkegård in Copenhagen.

Afterplay

The family subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against the Copenhagen Police, and on Benjamin’s 22nd birthday, 17 November 1995, the Eastern District Court ordered the police to pay compensation in the then record-breaking amount of 1.4 million. DKK. The court based its verdict on the fact that the police officers should have reacted and discovered that Benjamin Schou was not conscious. However, the officers were not held personally responsible for the case.

In 1994, it was forbidden for the police to use the ‘fixed leg lock’ method, just as the police’s harsh treatment of Benjamin Schou led to criticism of Denmark in Amnesty International’s annual report.

Many years after the episode, Benjamin is still remembered in the left-wing environment, which during demonstrations etc. often used the battle cry Do you remember Benjamin? against the police. But the police have also used the term, i.a. during the 18 May 1993 riots to remind those arrested how bad things can go if you resist arrest.

ARoS Aarhus Artmuseum