Went – as mentioned earlier – to Copenhagen for a short visit. Had a stroll ’round today, quiet city, rather square. The danes spend their creative energy on their towers: fantastic shapes there, onions, bell shapes, one tower crowned with four dragons with spiralling tails. Buildings seem uninspired, shops full of good design, though. Am saving the danish design museum (around the corner of my hotel) for friday.

Went to say hello to the little mermaid, but she’s  gone to Shanghai  for the World Expo 2010. A chinese artist called Ai Weiwei put a camera on her there, then relayed the take to a screen he placed in Copenhagen on the mermaid site. So we can watch the watchers. Nice. Distances don’t  mean a thing anymore. Taken that for granted, there still is a huge difference between a work of art and the representation of a work of art. In this case, the representation is better than the real thing.  The mermaid ‘in the flesh’ is rather unassuming, the ‘watch the watchers’ construction and the ‘east meets west’ idea are rather interesting.

Had a peek  at the Danish national museum: the Statens Museum for Kunst. They had a Bjorn  Norgaard retrospective: pretty impressive. He and his wife date back to the ’70 when they were part of Denmarks  hippy scene. Saw an interview with Norgaard in which he discusses working in public space. This brought home to me again how important it is to present people with alternative options for everyday actions – and that working in public space is always about that.

Am scouting for a place to draw a game. Wanted to do one at the mermaid site, but this didn’t appeal to me. Found a park – the Kings Garden – that I can use – maybe.