The Light

The Light is a fast-paced, exhaustively researched documentary recreating what will be, for many viewers, a forgotten or unknown recent episode in art: the ferocious public controversy surrounding the Peace Sculpture 1995 installation created by Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen to commemorate Denmark’s liberation from Nazi occupation. By linking up at night, in a single laser beam, the six thousand leftover war bunkers along the west coast, the project highlighted a troubling ambiguity in the nation’s collective memory: are these constructions a sign of historic collaboration with the Nazis? How are they best understood? The project set out neither to criticise nor celebrate, but to literally 'shine a light' on this complexity.

Surviving members of the Danish resistance inaugurated a campaign of opposition to the project, spreading like wildfire through parliament and mass media. Filmmaker Alexander Lind highlights what was perhaps not so glaringly evident in 1995: the astonishing sexism involved in this public vituperation. Death threats, physical attacks on the artwork, and ideological denunciations ensued. Ejdrup’s own career in the artworld was blocked for two decades, until a recent, salutary resurgence.

– Adrian Martin