hard core

Dear Sheddists,

a short warning in advance...

THIS POSTING FEATURES HARD CORE SCANDINAVIAN CHAIR PORN!!!!

The Danish Design Center is to be found just beyond the royal palaces on the east side of Copenhagen harbour.  It occupies the site of the old Fredericks Hospital and features an amazing selection of twentieth-century Danish art and craft.

Pride of place goes to the Danish Chair Exhibition. It's housed in one of the four wings of the old hospital behind thick PVC door-strip curtains - the kind you might find at the entrance to an industrial refrigeration unit.

We push them apart and enter a long tunnel clad with a jet black ceiling.  Our breath is fair taken away. Ranged along each side of the tunnel behind neat, geometric windows are a series of stunning Danish Modern chairs. They include some designed by Hans J. Wegner and if you've read earlier posts in this series you'll know already we're staying in the Wegner Room at the Hotel Alexandra.

There are just so many beautiful shapes and forms to take in as we walk the length of the tunnel before diving back into the main part of the Center.  Perhaps as you look at the photos below you can imagine walking with us.

Best regards,

electrofried(mr)

The galleries begin

The Danish Chair Exhibition

Fade out

tivoli gardens

Dear Sheddists,

on first arrival in Copenhagen we walk in blistering sun round three sides of the square that houses Tivoli Garden in search of our hotel. Not exactly the best of introductions to one of the city's most famous attractions.

Tivoli Gardens has been here since 1843, the second oldest operational amusement park in the world. From the outside it looks slightly tacky, hemmed in on every side by the encroaching city-scape.

So after a busy day exploring some of the rich history of Copenhagen we have no great expectations of our early evening visit.  It therefore comes as some surprise how much we enjoy it.

We enter the Gardens and pass by the fairground-carney distorting mirrors just as Sarah MacDougall takes the stage at the newly opened Orangerie. She boasts an impressive if unlikely pedigree as a Swedish Canadian singer/songwriter based in the Yukon, Oregon.

Tonight Sarah's backed by the Sentimentals, a band of equally unlikely pioneers of Danish folk music.  They play a blinder to the great delight of the assembled crowd.

We walk the grounds, litter-free and immaculately maintained, as we listen to hormonally-charged screams from teenagers strapped firmly to the overhead rides that thunder past at regular intervals.  A strangely cathartic end to a lovely day in Denmark.

Best regards,

electrofried(mr)

 

the waters of copenhagen