Lumia: International Lyskunst (light art)

Exhibition at Charlottenborg Art Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

November 1999 – January 2000

Mel Alexenberg

Danish Lights: 1942

Danish Lights: 1942 is a light artwork to honor the Danish people.  When most of the people in Europe reached the lowest level of morality, the Danish people were a light in the darkest hours of the Nazi terror.  In 1942, the courageous Danes defined the Nazi occupiers.  They saved their fellow Jewish citizens by hiding them and ferrying them to safety in Sweden.

In a long, narrow, darkened room, negative images of pages from the 1942 Denmark telephone book were projected, white letters on a black background.  Each page was projected over the previous page until the entire wall becomes solid white from the names superimposed one on top of the other.  Each Danish name added light until the initial darkness of the room is dissipated and replaced by a fully-illuminated wall.