Portrait story “People at Dokk1”
"I want to be a good and inspiring storyteller in film." Freja is studying Visual Anthropology and will soon embark on fieldwork in the Caribbean. She will investigate island identity and local pride in the former Danish West Indies. Hopefully, so we can better understand each other across the Atlantic.
Freja, 25 years old
"Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how to relate to my emotions.
I've been meditating for a while now, and it's something new in my life that I'm trying to feel my emotions and stay with them - especially the negative ones - instead of trying to escape from them.
For example, with anger: I just try to be in that anger and feel it in my body. And then it passes. Then I've felt what I needed to feel. And then everything is much easier.
It comes from a book called "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. It has done a lot for me, so I recommend it to everyone."
Kuldip, 29 years old, with Kamilla, 28 years old, Millan, 3 years old, and Noor, 9 months old.
"I'm taking a creative high school program where we spend one day a week at the School of Art & Design. I don't think I would want to attend a regular high school. It's much more motivating to attend a school where you also do something you really enjoy.
I've been doing creative things since kindergarten. Drawing and painting, knitting, working with silver and clay... Sometimes I just get this urge to create something with my hands. A creative impulse."
Aja, 16 years old
What do you know the most about?
Bertram: "About dinosaurs." Birk: "I do too!"
If you could choose to be a boy or become a dinosaur, what would you choose?
Bertram: "A dinosaur! And then I would choose a carnivore." Birk: "Me too, because then I would eat some meat." Bertram: "And then we wouldn't be afraid of anything, almost." Birk: "Only of shooters."
Bertram, 6 years old, and Birk, 5 years old
"As a child, I first had the Harry Potter books read to me aloud - later I read them myself, both in Danish and English, and watched all the movies.
Now I've seen on social media how J.K. Rowling has made some rather inappropriate statements about transgender people.
I thought: Well, it's a good thing I've read them and don't need to buy them again. I still have the old copies from the 90s on my bookshelf.
I can really understand those who don't want to support J.K. Rowling by, for example, buying her books as new anymore. I don't feel like doing that myself either. But I still think people should be able to read the Harry Potter series and borrow it from the library, for example. It's part of more recent literary history, and we should be careful not to censor people just because they once said something silly.
But maybe libraries can help people more along the way when they display the books. If, for example, it said: "Please be aware that the author has made these statements about transgender people. If you don't want to support her, then don't read this book." You could work more with something like that.
And if you take it home, and your kids read it, you can say: "Okay, the author has said some not so smart things, but she wrote this book before she became foolish to listen to."
Kiana, 24 years old
Ole is a painter, and Inga is a draftsman. They met at the Jutland Art Academy in 1961, where they were among the first students. Many years later, they came together as a couple, and they have now been married for 48 years.
Inga: - "I often sit and draw people. Preferably in waiting rooms, cafes, and libraries. I try to do it in just a few strokes. To capture their characteristic features in just a few minutes." - "The last time I was down here, I was sitting in the café. Suddenly a man stands next to me and says, 'Can I see your drawings? Then you can see mine.' And I thought I had done it so discreetly. I had even drawn him! But of course, I said yes. Then we talked and exchanged business cards. That was fun. You rarely see anyone sitting and drawing." - "Every night I draw a bit while watching TV, for example, politicians. I call them 'TV Characters.' My daughter says they should go on Instagram. Maybe I should try that."
Ole: - "Instagram, I don't need that. Now I've gotten so old. I don't have any special ambitions to step out into the world; not more than I already do with my exhibitions." - "I don't have ambitions to become world-famous. But I do have ambitions to become a better painter; a more exciting painter. Still. I love to paint."
Inga: - "Oh, I would love to become as good at drawing as Eiler Krag and Matisse... We have to live to be 100 years old because we have so much to achieve." - Inga, 79, and Ole, 82
“We lived in the U.S. for 15 years. First Texas, then North Carolina. Now we are moving to Denmark. I took up a job with Vestas, and we just arrived two days ago. Coming from the U.S., everything seems to be much smaller in scale. But also, much more environment-friendly and kids-friendly. We heard a lot of good things about Denmark, about the quality of life and the work/life balance. It’s a little bit shocking to see lots of little kids playing around on their own without a ton of supervision. It looks like kids have a lot of freedom here. But that’s how it used to be when we were kids, too.” - Asanka, 41, with his wife Thamara and their children Senith and Sasith
"A library should not just be norm-supportive for the people who already use it. It's important that the library encompasses as many stories as we have in society. There has been more focus on this in recent years, and it has also become part of my work.
For example, we have created a 'rainbow shelf' with books by and about LGBTQ+ individuals. It is there both for the majority to gain knowledge about other identities and lifestyles, but also for gender minorities to feel mirrored – to feel that this is also their space. As a queer person myself, I know how important that is. Recently, I experienced someone passing by the rainbow shelf and saying that for the first time in their entire life, they felt seen.
But it's just as important that you can simultaneously feel seen as, for example... a hobbyist who is really fond of making small intricate paper sculptures. As the nerd you are. Because, in reality, I think the library is fundamentally such a nerd space. In the best possible way. Here, you can come as the whole human being you are and geek out on your things and find communities across all sorts of weird, nerdy niche interests.
And we should provide that opportunity to as many people as possible in society, for the library to make sense."
Henrik, 33 years old, librarian at Dokk1
