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DAN PARK

‘Racist’ Swedish art opens to protests in CPH

The display of artwork by Swedish provocateur Dan Park has been under heavy discussion for nearly a month. On Monday, nine of Park's banned works were shown in a basement in Østerbro despite protests.

Published: 28 October 2014 10:02 CET
'Racist' Swedish art opens to protests in CPH
A protester expresses thoughts on both Dan Park and the Danish Free Press Society's Katrine Winkel Holm. Photo: Christian Liliendahl/Scanpix
The much-debated pictures of Malmö-based street artist Dan Park finally made their public debut on Monday. 
 
An exhibition of Park’s nine works that were banned in Sweden and ordered to be destroyed by the Swedish state were displayed in a basement location in the Copenhagen district of Østerbro. 
 
Greeting the exhibition’s opening was a group of protesters holding signs saying things like ‘Ban Dan Park – Racism is Not Art’ and ‘Hate Speech is Not Free Speech’. 
 
The display of Park’s ‘forbidden’ works has been under discussion for nearly a month. First, Radio24syv was forced to give up its plans to show the pieces “at a secret location in Copenhagen”. The display was then scheduled to begin on Thursday at the Copenhagen gallery Hornsleth & Friends, but that plan too was dropped after gallery owner Kristian von Hornsleth withdrew after death threats. His gallery was also subjected to vandalism widely believed to be related to the Park exhibition. 
 
Both inside and outside of the dingy basement location, dueling signs argued the concept of 'free speech'. Photo: Christian Liliendahl/Scanpix
Both inside and outside of the dingy basement location, duelling signs argued the concept of 'free speech'. Photo: Christian Liliendahl/Scanpix
 
The display of Park’s art is being organized by the the Danish Free Press Society (Trykkefrihedsselskabet), which argues that people should be given the opportunity to see Park’s work for themselves. 
 
“It would be a colossal defeat for the freedom of speech if violent criminals are able to stop the show. We can’t allow that, so we look forward to giving everyone the opportunity to see Dan Park’s forbidden pictures,” the Danish Free Press Society’s chairwoman Katrine Winkel Holm said last week.
 
On Friday, a group of activists emailed The Local to claim credit for an alternative exhibition of Park’s controversial art on Thursday night when 31 different works were applied to Hornsleth & Friends Gallery’s broken window.
 
“Fully in the spirit of Dan Park, this was true street art when Dan Park’s pictures were stuck to the boards that covered the gallery’s window after vandalism. The opening was well-attended and even Dan Park himself came by and expressed great satisfaction that all of his pictures made it out to the people after all,” the group wrote. 
 
A group of activists claimed credit for an alternative exhibition of Park's work in Copenhagen. Photo: Submitted
A group of activists claimed credit for an alternative exhibition of Park's work in Copenhagen. Photo: Submitted
 
Park’s artwork was also given a more upscale reception on Thursday with a showing at Denmark’s parliament building, Christiansborg. Park himself also attended that event but was not at the Monday opening in Østerbro. 
 
Park was convicted by a Malmö court in August on charges of inciting racial agitation and defamation and was sentenced to six months in jail. However, he was recently released from jail on appeal. 
 
Park’s works include an image that depicts three Swedish residents with African backgrounds portrayed with nooses around their necks, a Catholic bishop receiving fellatio from a young boy and Jesus having sex with Muhammad. 
 
The public display of ‘Sweden’s most dangerous art’ will continue in Østerbro through Friday. An offshoot of the Danish Free Press Society is also selling the banned pieces online. 

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CHARLIE HEBDO

Swedish street artist reported to Danish police

UPDATED: After Danish police determined that there were no grounds to charge controversial Swedish street artist Dan Park, he will get off with a fine for his flyers comparing refugees to terrorists.

Published: 20 October 2015 09:57 CEST
Updated: 20 October 2015 12:23 CEST
Swedish street artist reported to Danish police
Dan Park posing with some of his controversial works in Copenhagen last October. Photo: Submitted
Malmö-based artist Dan Park was reported to the police after a recent visit to the Jutland town of Silkeborg. 
 
Park and a team of supporters posted flyers featuring a refugee family portrayed as terrorists. The flyers, which were also distributed to private post boxes, were a recreation of the ‘Refugees Welcome’ logo. 
 
Instead of depicting a fleeing family holding hands and running, Park’s version shows the family members clutching weapons and dragging a child who is wearing a suicide belt. The flyers read “Terrorist Welcome – bring your weapons.”
 
Image: Dan Park
Image: Dan Park
 
The flyers were reported to the local police in Silkeborg, who after legal consideration said there were no grounds to charge the artist or his supporters with making threats or inciting terror. Instead, those involved with displaying and distributing the image will each be fined 1,000 Danish kroner. 
 
“The three people who were part of the distribution will be charged with hanging the posters on, among other things, electrical boxes. That is not legal. On top of that, they received an admonition that they think twice before doing something like that again,” police spokesman Flemming Just told MidtJyllands Avis, adding that the posters had been displayed in other Danish towns as well. 
 
Michala Bendixen, the chairwoman of Refugees Welcome Denmark, told The Local that Park's comparison of refugees to terrorists was “sad”.
 
“Most of the refugees are fleeing from precisely terrorism in some form and only a small part of terrorism in Europe has been committed by Islamists.The main reason Syrians give for choosing Denmark is 'human rights' and the main reason for granting asylum is a refusal to join military forces – most refugees are so sick of war and fighting,” she said. 
 
“Dan Park is an established racist who will do anything for attention. I think we should ignore him,” Bendixen added. 
 
“As much attention as possible”
 
The head of a Danish committee that supports Dan Park’s work told the regional newspaper that the flyers were meant to “attract as much attention as possible”. 
 
“To consider the works as incitement to terror couldn’t be more wrong. [If that’s the case] then one doesn’t understand that Dan Park utlilizes a lot of irony in his work. The discussed piece ‘Terrorists Welcome’ is clearly not an incitement to terror but to the contrary is about the risk that there could be terrorist among the many refugees coming to the country,” Ibi-Pippi Orup Hedegaard told MidtJyllands Avis. 
 
Park is no stranger to controversy in Denmark or Sweden. The artist first garnered attention in 2011 with a picture of the leader of the National Afro-Swedish Association (Afrosvenskarnas riksförbund) superimposed on the image of a naked man in chains with the text “our negro slave has run away”. Park was given a fine and a suspended sentence. 
 
In August 2014, the artist was convicted by a Malmö court on charges of inciting racial agitation and defamation and sentenced to six months in jail.
 
That incident followed two earlier convictions for racial agitation. The Swedish state ordered nine of Park’s controversial works – which include an image that depicts three Swedish residents with African backgrounds portrayed with nooses around their necks, a Catholic bishop receiving fellatio from a young boy and Jesus having sex with Muhammad – to be destroyed, but the Danish Free Press Society (Trykkefrihedsselskabet) obtained the pieces and sold them online. 
 
In October 2014, the group displayed Park’s banned works in Copenhagen, both at the Danish parliament building and in a basement location in the district of Østerbro. 
 
Park was then assaulted in Copenhagen on New Year’s Day, which he said was a direct result of his controversial artwork. 
 
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said last month that there was little risk that terrorists were among the refugees and migrants currently entering Denmark.