“The Meeting” is a sculpture which is planned to be placed at Sortedam Dossering at the end of Hedemannsgade in Copenhagen so that it will be visible to everyone who walks or cycles along the Lakes. The sculpture will be made of bronze on a staircase-like plinth approx. 2 meters high. It has arisen in dialogue with citizens in the area. Copenhagen’s Citizens’ Representation has approved the sculpture and would like to receive it as a gift, however the municipality does not have the funds for the execution and installation of the sculpture. Thanks to generous financial support from the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the L.F. Foght Foundation and Alrowmedia, the project (April 15-23) is close to being fully financed. The plan is for the sculpture to be inaugurated in the summer of 2024.
Specifically, the sculpture is inspired by the Mannerist painting The Visit to 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 Creation of the Work of Art at the Statens Museum for Art.
Several drawings by Barocci were shown here. The motif is so simple, Elisabeth and Maria who meet 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 who steps up to Elisabeth. There is something so fundamentally simple and straightforward about their meeting. I have made several smaller sculptures where it is two mythical creatures that 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 animals meeting each other. Since the sculpture has no plinth apart from the staircase-like granite plinth, the sculpture will be open for dialogue with the viewer who can sit on the steps and interact with the two.
link to Copenhagen Municipality webside(only danish):