By Steen Bruun Jensen, The magazine Billedkunstneren #1 2024
"Revisiting Nuuk in Greenland these weeks to continue working on the dream of realizing Greenland's National Gallery of Art," wrote professor and sculptor Bjørn Nørgaard the other day on Instagram to his followers. The trip was the latest of a long series he has undertaken since he was invited into the foundation for Greenland's National Gallery of Art by his colleagues Aka Høegh, Bodil Kaalund and Anne-Birthe Hove approximately 15 years ago, and having just returned from this latest trip, he can tell that it is with great gratitude that he has been involved in the project.
“It was probably the last thing I needed to be a part of; I have gotten to know Greenland and have made some very precious Greenlandic friends that I appreciate; you become much wiser by meeting people with a different background and culture, although unfortunately I have to learn to speak Greenlandic," he says.
He had not expected from the start that he would be part of the foundation for so many years, even though he knew very well that the realization of the National Gallery would not happen overnight:
"I am associated as an expert based on my background as a sculptor and professor and previous engagements, and as such I have to help find out how to deal with the problems you encounter along the way. And when it is my profession, it is a very challenging and exciting task to be allowed to be a part of.”
"We ran into a number of difficulties of various kinds along the way, which I probably did not foresee, and from the start the idea of a National Gallery was probably not the highest on the politicians' wish list. But now we have a building site that is perfectly located on top of a cliff, where you can see over the city, and architectural drawings for a house that is an attraction in itself, so there is great optimism that this year will be the year , we get started.”
A new context
"The National Gallery must be a place where the Greenlandic identity can express itself and unfold. Greenlandic art and artistic life will have its own institution, from which communication can be made to many other similar art museums in the world. This will open up opportunities for exchange, and Greenlandic artists do not necessarily need to use Scandinavia, England or Canada as an entry point to art and culture, but will have access directly from their own country. International art will come to Greenland and Nuuk, and the art and cultural exchange that is necessary for any nation will become much stronger and more independent than it is today. This is how I see the role of the National Gallery.”
"It will also be exciting to see much of what is in Greenland's National Museum, the cultural history museum, in a new context. A mask in the cultural history museum is a cultural historical object, but it will be a work of art when it enters an art museum. It is about the context in which we put it. In this way, we can spread Greenland's art history from very early times and see the young Greenlandic art today as part of a long tradition. It will also be one of the National Gallery's great visions.”