By Ann-Sophie Greve Møller, The magazine Billedkunstneren #1 2024
For 18 years, a group of artists and actors in Greenland have had the ambition to create the first National Art Gallery in Greenland. Because without a National Gallery, art is homeless, they believe. And if everything goes according to plan, 2024 will be the year when the dream will finally be realized.
Imagine a 3000 square meter gallery filled with art from Greenland located on a mountaintop in the middle of the capital Nuuk, from where you can also enjoy the view of the city and Nuuk fjord.
This is the dream of a group of artists and actors who have worked for 18 years to create a National Art Gallery in Greenland.
And now the dream is close to being realized.
Art has always been a big part of Greenlandic culture. But much of the art has been acquired from outside over the years and is today either privately owned or exhibited in museums around the world. And as long as there is not a National Gallery that can collect both historical and contemporary art in Greenland, art is homeless, believes Aka Høegh, one of the country's well-known artists. She has helped found the foundation behind Greenland's National Gallery of Art.
“We are a small nation, but a huge country. We are very few people, but we have always created art. Unfortunately, much of the art has seeped out of Greenland because for many years there have been no people who took art seriously in this country. The art was purchased from outside. But now it's as if Greenland is waking up," says Aka Høegh, who is now deputy chairman of the foundation.
The Foundation for Greenland's National Gallery of Art was established in 2006 with financial help from NunaFonden. The following year, the fund entered the Greenland Finance Act for a four-year period. In 2010, the board of Greenland's National Gallery of Art held a competition where they invited six Nordic architectural design studios to come up with proposals for how the future National Gallery could be designed. The winner was a proposal from the Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group. Although it has been 14 years since the winning project – a large, round, gray building – was presented, the Bjarke Ingels Group is still interested in realizing the project, says chairman of the foundation Josef Motzfeldt. The foundation subsequently set about collecting financial funds to make the National Gallery a reality – work that has progressed slowly. They estimate that the establishment of the National Gallery will cost well over DKK 200 million.
In 2018, Naalakkersuisut, the Greenlandic government, granted two million kroner for the board's work. The foundation received an additional donation of DKK 175.000 for the project from foundations in the Greenlandic business community.
In 2022, the self-governed government agreed that they, together with Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq, which is the municipality to which Nuuk belongs, will be the owners of the National Gallery and thus be responsible for the operation of the gallery.
The following year, in 2023, the project took off. Greenland's parliament decided that 50 million kroner was set aside for the construction of the National Gallery. At the same time, a private Danish businessman, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated DKK 50 million to the project in February 2023. The foundation has now collected DKK 100 million for the construction of the National Gallery, which is half of what the foundation expects the project to cost. In addition, Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq and the self-government have set aside two million kroner for the board's work in 2024.
Anne-Birthe Hove: Part of the series 'Five Letters', 1997. Lithography.
If it's up to the foundation's chairman, Josef Motzfeldt, 2024 will be the year when the construction of the National Gallery will finally take its infancy.
"There has been very little interest in the national gallery both from the political side and from the private business community in Greenland. In many ways I think they have failed us. But now that the self-government has indicated that they will be the owners of the future national gallery, the project is gaining momentum. Now several foundations are willing to support us, as they can see that the national gallery is becoming a reality and that it is not just a small group of stubborn people who want the gallery," says Josef Motzfeldt.
The National Gallery is also an identity brand
For 13 years, Josef Motzfeldt has been chairman of the foundation Greenland's National Gallery of Art. As a former politician in the current government party Inuit Ataqatigiit, he is already well-known among the Greenlandic population, where he has, among other things, held several ministerial positions and was chairman of the Greenlandic parliament. Although he has today put his career as a politician on the shelf, he still has a political project: the National Gallery.
In his home in Nuuk, where gold-framed landscape paintings of mountains and snow hang side by side with a work of a small figure created from legs, grouse feet and musk hair - the work "Toornatsiaq I" by the artist Naja Rosing-Asvid - he reflects on how art according to him, helps to form the population's identity.
In a society where today there are generations that have experienced several political eras – from colonization to county to home rule to self-government – there is a need for the art of bringing the people together. Because there have never been as many ways of seeing the world as there are in Greenland right now, he believes.
Pia Arke: Gone With the Wind, 1997. Photography.
"Art helps to depict our entire history and identity. It will be a huge national disaster if we let the indigenous people's way of expressing themselves be scorned, if we let it disappear. That is why it is important that both historical art and contemporary art get a home in the National Gallery, where the public has access to it," he says.
Like Aka Høegh, who believes that "Greenland is waking up" in relation to the importance of art, Josef Motzfeldt also feels that in recent years there has been more political goodwill towards the establishment of a National Gallery.
Therefore, he also believes that it will be easier for the board to collect the last million kroner that they need to be able to start construction.
"The outside world often associates Greenland with hunting and the military, but Greenlandic art also has something to show the world. It is Greenland as a nation in the process of birth that must show its identity, which also includes art. It is the brand of identity that we would like to make visible. So we can show large exhibitions, just like other international cities, and send our art out into the world," says Josef Motzfeldt.
The young people must be able to experience the work of their ancestors
As long as people have lived in Greenland, art has existed. It is woven together; art, culture and nature. The ancient Inuit created figures out of bones and driftwood, tupil lacquer, which in ancient mythology functioned as vengeful spirits. They created fishing tools with artistic carvings, jewellery, and the body became an artistic form of expression wow, Greenlandic mask dance. Even the dressing of fur was a work of art in itself, believes Aka Høegh.
She herself draws a lot of inspiration from the ancient Inuit when she creates art today. But she would like inspiration to be more accessible – and that is why she has worked for many years for the establishment of a national gallery.
Because even though today important works of art hang in several of the country's museums and in public buildings such as Inatsisartut, Greenland's parliament, and the self-government tower in Nuuk, "you can't just go in there to experience art," says Aka Høegh.
"It is so important that we get greater access to the arts. It is particularly important that the young people can experience the work of their ancestors side by side with contemporary art and be inspired and create new currents from art. This is, among other things, what the National Gallery can contribute with," she says.
Therefore, the ambition is also that the National Gallery should also be able to be explored digitally, so that people in towns and villages outside Nuuk can also enjoy the works.
Although the National Gallery is not yet a reality, the foundation has nevertheless started to collect works to be exhibited at the gallery. The foundation owns, among other things, a collection of works by the late well-known artists Hans Lynge, Anne-Birthe Hove, who herself helped start the foundation for Greenland's National Gallery of Art, and Pia Arke, who has been exhibited in several Danish museums in recent year. While Hans Lynge's works are stored in Denmark, the works of Anne-Birthe Hove and Pia Arke were purchased in collaboration with the Nuuk Art Museum, which therefore stores them. In addition, the foundation owns 38 works by other Greenlandic artists.
But the foundation is already looking at works from Greenland in other museums, which they want to be exhibited at the future National Gallery.
“I remember visiting the Musée de l'Homme to see the collection of masks they have from East Greenland. I have never seen such a large collection of exciting and fascinating masks before. It is important that we get the opportunity to exhibit them for periods in a safe environment in Greenland, so that we can be inspired by them," says Aka Høegh and continues:
"This also applies to other museums abroad. I imagine a lively cultural exchange across nations.”
Political support
Naalakkersuisut also agrees that it is important that the Greenlandic population has access to the arts. That is why the government supports the National Gallery and the group of "committed and skilled zealots", writes Culture Minister Aqqaluaq B. Egede (IA) in a written reply.
"A national gallery will be able to give insight into different periods of Greenland's cultural and art history in a different way than, for example, the National Museum, and give the visitor the opportunity to reflect on society and themselves through art," he writes.
Even so, Josef Motzfeldt believes that the government has "failed" by not showing enough initiative for the project, which has been under way for 18 years. But it is not a view shared by the government.
"Naalakkersuisut has shown both interest and commitment in terms of the work to realize the establishment of Greenland's National Gallery of Art, which, among other things, must ensure that Greenlandic works of art become accessible to a wider audience," writes Aqqaluaq B. Egede.
Also read: It's about identity
Top: The building project from the competition proposal. The inner glass facade of the circle forms a simple and refined framing of the raw nature and the majestic view of the sculpture garden. ILLUSTRATION BIG/Glessner Group