UNIVERSITY OF AARHUS, Århus 1931 –
Kay Fisker, C F Møller, P Stegmann, C Th Sørensen

Erected in the 1930s, the University of Aarhus hints at brighter times for Århus and Denmark. The architecture is modern, and immediately anti-monumental, as an organic interpretation of the open campus in the centre of the city. It also provides distinctive and solid evidence of how a major structure in an urban context can develop with beauty and with soul over a period of more than 70 years.
The university buildings are set around a valley, rhythmically positioned, correctly distanced, in perfect harmony with the landscape, and such that the valley itself remains virginal. All wings are built in one material only – yellow bricks for the facings, roofs and paving – which makes the building structures stand out as uniform, simplistic and prismatic with clean saddle roofs without overhang. At the top, the main building with the main hall screens off the area from the Ringgaden circular road, boasting a more expressive idiom in contrast to the matter-of-fact character of the individual faculty buildings.
The University of Aarhus is a tribute to tile as a building material. The brick tiles knit the buildings closely together in harmony with the surrounding landscape, creating a subdued monumentality with a regional Danish character, most clearly evidenced by the Main Hall building with its gable end throning over the valley. Here, amphitheatrical terracing draws the landscape together, in contrast to the Main Hall’s brick-tiled yard enclosure from where the unifying thought of the entire university reveals itself. This unique integration of the landscape and the buildings is strengthened further by the characterful clumps of oak trees in the park, accentuating the topography and enhancing the landscape. In the fullness of time a grand landscape, almost pastoral in appearance, has emerged – both classical and regional at the same time.

Source: English translation from the “Canon of Danish Art and Culture”/The Danish Ministry of Culture

ÅRHUS CITY HALL, 1937 – 42
Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) and Erik Møller (1898-1988)

The Århus City Hall is an inspiring example of early functionalism with a hint of distinctive Scandinavian sensitivity.
The building is situated strategically to provide a street front facing the city, thereby isolating the major part of the old cemetery, which is integrated in the landscaping of the area. The City Hall is divided into three staggered sections, each overlapping and defining different functional units. Facing the city is the representative front building with the main hall and the ceremonial hall, opening on to the park and the cemetery’s preserved avenue of limes. The office wing extends into the front hall via a panoptical central passage, which, in a rational and systematic way, provides the required office space, and a lower building with an information office, which stands out somewhat with its arched roof and exposed concrete construction.
Århus City Hall is a friendly and humanistic building, even though at the time of its erection it was considered too modern, too democratic, and anti-monumental. Thus some modifications were deemed expedient, such as the tower and marble facings which were added to the building project.
The great qualities of the City Hall are demonstrated in the interplay between the interior open spatiality, integrating the natural surroundings and the refined interior detailing. The importance of detail has been given special attention at all levels, and the careful working of precious metals pleasantly counterbalances and contrasts with the cool and subdued monumentality of the building’s frontal aspects.
Today the Århus City Hall stands proudly as a beautifully patinated building complex, which is not only one of the most sensuous buildings in Denmark, but also a most outstanding work marking the transition in Denmark into a more regional interpretation of modernistic architecture.

Source: English translation from the “Canon of Danish Art and Culture”/The Danish Ministry of Culture

'Kundskabens Træ' by Niels Malmros
KUNDSKABENS TRÆ, 1981
Nils Malmros (born 1944)

Delicate adolescence has often been portrayed in Danish film, but never before with such precision as in director Nils Malmros' film 'Kundskabens Træ' (The Tree of Knowledge), which justifiably stands as his principal work and which is the film other films on similar themes are compared against - and pale in comparison to. The film was the culmination of the director's trilogy based on his own recollections from his childhood in the 1950s in Århus, and it came after the films 'Lars Ole, 5.c' (Lars Ole, fifth form) from 1973 and 'Drenge' (Boys) from 1977.
The story is enacted between 1958 and 1960, but the film is so much more than just a period piece as the psychological mechanisms portrayed with a very keen eye by Malmros will, regrettably, never loose their relevance. The film is a group portrait of a school class at the Aarhus Cathedral School, but the central figure is the girl Elin who is slightly more mature than her classmates and therefore popular with the boys. But as she turns down one of the boys all her classmates turn against her. In its own quiet fashion this is a chilling and unpleasant portrayal of small-scale Denmark. The setting, the local dialect, and the period picture are all very Danish, but the drama itself is universal and never before was the universe of children so well portrayed. Malmros tells his story discretely with looks of the eye, subtle movements, and situations known to us all. The characters are all embodiments of children you can find in any classroom - the petit bourgeois, the wild, the respectable, and the bullied – but they are all allowed to unfold and become little people of flesh and blood, who develop throughout the film.
The film was made over a period of two years, and the children change physically as well as mentally. Malmros has never made a secret of his passion for the French New Wave, and Francois Truffaut in particular. But even if this was more obvious in his earlier and less tightly composed films, his unerring grip on the young, inexperienced actors and his ability to make them show emotion is at the very same level as his own icons.

Source: English translation from the "Canon of Danish Art and Culture”/The Danish Ministry of Culture

'Supertanker' by Kliché
SUPERTANKER, 1980
Kliche (1977 – 1983)

It seemed like a happening, a clear provocation, when the new wave band Kliché from Århus struck up a new decade with a record that included poems by Mao Zedong set to music, which they recited in such a way that is was hard to know if they meant every word, or if they meant to expose the postulated hollowness. The reason for this doubt was that the opinion-forming artists in Danish rock music in the 1970s had been politicizing to an extent which made it hard to hear the poetry behind all their parading. So, the supertanker, which Kliché had to turn, was so heavy on cliché that the only way to get nearer to the truth was to reinvent the face value of words. Hence their unsentimental and naked style. 'Supertanker' is political rock cleansed and reborn, full of opinion about alienation, desolation and a utopian belief in something that looked like the future, embodied in the expressive voice of lead singer Lars H.U.G. and balancing between longing and feeling trapped.
A sound as from a Farfisa organ weaves through extremely simplistic melodic patterns with a manic consequence, clinically cleaned of aesthetic-making effects, then changes character with brief blasts in little more than a second while incorporating traditional echoes from the Beach Boys and a sound that could derive its inspiration from earlier popular Danish bands Alrune Rod and Gnags. And all along you clearly sense the influence from contemporary British rock with David Bowie as their model. Minimalism, before it became a buzzword.
A record affording no ready solutions, which ended up on the Danish all time music charts. This is how paradoxical good pop music is, how art that lasts is.

Source: English translation from the "Canon of Danish Art and Culture"/The Danish Ministry of Culture

'Nærmest Lykkelig' by TV-2
NÆRMEST LYKKELIG, 1988
TV-2 (formed in 1980/81)

Pop and rock music with Danish lyrics in the 1980s was a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of quality. However, after a somewhat hesitant take-off the Århus pop-rock band TV-2 quickly assumed their position at the better end of the scale. Overall the band epitomised intelligent 80's pop music with machinery beats, catchy tunes, and lead singer and composer Steffen Brandt’s idiomatic lyrics, which, with their ironic double-twist, spiked what he in one song called "real life" and the mental life of the Danes for better or for worse. 'Nærmest lykkelig' (Near Happy) from 1988 was TV-2's spiritual farewell to the eighties - an album on which you could sense that an otherwise smoothly running TV-2 machinery had both desperation and depression as part of their mental ballast. Perhaps this is why the band reached an artistic climax with this album where most of it came together to form a synthesis.
True, it may not be as exhilarating and charming as their preceding albums 'Pop' and 'Nutidens unge' (Youth of the Time). It was however clever, self-confident and extremely competent composing, performing, arranging and production. Irony was still at the forefront in the lyrics. In addition, however, there was a rather becoming air of thoughtfulness and surprise with the meaning of life as it appeared in the division between presence and absence, between happiness and indifference. This schism is demonstrated clearly on the cover: Steffen Brandt, dressed in black, is standing in a Danish grain field holding his little boy by the hand. His son is looking inquisitively at the photographer, while Brandt himself has turned his back and has his other hand lifted to his head, hopelessly reflecting on life in that very moment when he should be living it. It is not without reason that one of the songs on the album was titled 'Kys det nu (det satans liv)' (Come on kiss it (damned life)). Near Happy is the closest you ever get.

Source: English translation from the "Canon of Danish Art and Culture"/The Danish Ministry of Culture

Go' Sønda' Morn' by Anne Linnet
GO' SØNDA' MORN', 1980
Anne Linnet (born 1953)

At a time when music for children in Denmark was either an echo from the bongo drum-type way of teaching, from traditional children’s songs, or from the sound of discount pop music, Anne Linnet stepped in with her album Go' Sønda' Morn' (Good Sunday Morning). This, long before she walked down her childhood street on her later best-selling album 'Barndommens Gade'.
Go' Sønda' Morn' is music for children, but adults can also join in because the songs are based on recollections of a childhood we all wish we could have led – yet without ever becoming sentimental or remote from reality. It is idiomatic, melodic, and full of sweetness, and composed for catching surplus energy. Anne Linnet had just broke up with her band 'Shit & Chanel', she had earlier that year released the New York-inspired album 'You're Crazy', she had that same year had score-music presented in an original performance at the Numus Festival of contemporary classical Danish music, and she was embarking on her next project, the 'Anne Linnet Band'.
Nevertheless, or perhaps exactly for these reasons, Go' Sønda' Morn' is laid-back, swinging music composed by a music teacher without any admonition. Only a passionate love of music, half way between Carole King’s singer-songwriter tradition and the grand old man of Danish music teaching Bernhard Christensen. Songs like 'Sigurd' (sung by her daughter Eva), 'Bedst som vi leger' (While we were playing), and 'Humørsang' (Song of humour) has long since become standard repertoire in Danish kindergartens. The sense of presence on this album is underlined by the fact that it was recorded by her and former husband and music colleague, Holger Laumann, in their home in Århus.
In addition to this album, Anne Linnet is also represented in the Evergreens category in the Canon of Danish Art and Culture by the band Shit & Channel with their 'Du er så smuk og dejlig' (You’re so wonderful and lovely). In the Canon you also find Peter AG together with the band Gnags with their 'Under Bøgen' (Under the beech-tree).
'Du er så smuk og dejlig' (You’re so wonderful and lovely) – Evergreens
Anne Linnet/Anne Linnet - from the album Shit & Chanel, 1975. Performed by Shit & Chanel.

'Under Bøgen' (Under the beech-tree) – Evergreens
Peter A.G. Nielsen/Gnags – from the album Er du hjemme i aften, 1977. Performed by Gnags
In addition to this Århus is represented in the category “Poetry anthology” by author Thorkil Bjørnvig with 'Anubis'.
'Anubis' by Thorkild Bjørnvig. (Poetry anthology)
Thorkild Bjørnvig (1918 – 2004): 'Anubis' from Anubis, 1955. DDL after 1870, p. 261.

Source: English translation from the "Canon of Danish Art and Culture"/The Danish Ministry of Culture