Hjørring Municipality has approved a plan to turn a disused 13 square meter bus shelter in Sønder Rubjerg into a small art space, on the condition that exhibitions contain nothing offensive, insulting or politically agitating. Three cultural organizations say the condition breaks the arm’s length principle.
The digital exhibition platform PixlArt was granted permission to fill the old shelter in the North Jutland village with art. According to DR, minutes from the municipality’s Technical and Environmental Committee state that the exhibitions must not include offensive, insulting or politically agitating content.
Nordjyske reported on September 3 that PixlArt received a two year permission to convert the worn waiting room into a small art hall. The plan is led by artistic director Tao Lytzen.
Kulturmonitor noted on September 7 that the condition came as a surprise to the association behind PixlArt. Lytzen wrote that they become somewhat worried when a municipality wants to define artistic content in advance.
Anders Dalsager, chair of Dansk Magisterforening’s Kultur & Medier, criticized the decision in DR’s P1 program K-Live. He said the message to Hjørring Municipality, and to politicians elsewhere, is that they should not vote on artistic content or have officials approve individual works.
Survey points to broader pressure
Mai Villadsen, director of Dansk Kulturliv, told K-Live that the bus shelter case is not unique in Denmark. In a survey her organization carried out this year, 63 percent of cultural leaders assessed that the arm’s length principle is under pressure to some, high or very high degree.
Villadsen described political interference in art as dangerous for society and democracy. She said institutions are often contacted by administrations or politicians, and that in serious cases leaders are publicly criticized or threatened with reduced support. She added that 34 percent of institutions in the survey consider very carefully what they exhibit.
She pointed to earlier cases. Jakob Næsager of the Conservative People’s Party, children and youth mayor in Copenhagen, called for new management at the venue Vega after it booked the Irish rap group Kneecap. A library in Favrskov near Aarhus drew criticism from Dansk Folkeparti members over a children’s book about masturbation.
Committee chair rejects criticism
Søren Homann of the Conservative People’s Party, who chairs the Technical and Environmental Committee, said critics are seeing ghosts. He said the committee has deliberately left follow up to the municipal administration, so politicians do not judge individual works themselves.
Asked what counts as offensive, Homann mentioned religious content as an example. He noted that the shelter is a public space with no entry fee, and said anyone wanting to show offensive or politically agitating work could instead use one of the many houses for sale in the village.
Lytzen said he is particularly curious about how the municipality will enforce the rule. He noted that art can occasionally be provocative, and said he hopes the project will prove embracing rather than offensive.
