Why Is the Danish Far Right Vandalizing Left-Wing Artwork?
In an attempt to win votes, Denmark’s major parties have mainstreamed far-right ideas and stoked a reactionary political climate in the country. The result: right-wing extremists have been emboldened to terrorize minorities and attack cultural symbols of the Left.
A museum visitor looks at the painting The Detested Town (R) by Asger Jorn. (Dominique Faget / AFP via Getty Images)
On Friday April 29, a small group of far-right artists and activists entered the Jorn Museum in Silkeborg, Denmark to vandalize the work of the celebrated antiwar and anti-fascist Danish painter Asger Jorn. One of the provocateurs caused lasting damage to Jorn’s 1959 painting The Disquieting Duckling by signing the artwork and affixing a photo of herself hatching from an egg onto it.
The events of last week should be understood in the context of the rise of the Nordic nations’ far right, made possible by establishment parties on both sides of the political divide. Denmark’s far right has mounted an assault on both the symbols and institutions of the Left within the country. The attack on Jorn’s work is the latest episode in this revanchist turn.
Jorn as a Political Artist
A committed anti-fascist and antiwar activist, Jorn was a key figure in the radical avant-garde Situationist International alongside figures like Guy Debord, Raul Vaneigem, and Jorn’s younger brother Jørgen Nash. Between 1957 and 1972, the Situationists practiced “détournement,” a form of radical subversion of mainstream culture for emancipatory purposes. The Situationists dissolved partly over disagreements between Debord and Jorn on the political potential of this strategy. Foreseeing developments like the transformation of the politics of the Black Panthers and the punk movement into fashion, the French philosopher despaired of capitalist societies’ ability to co-opt any radical challenge which sought to use iconoclastic images and events to disrupt the status quo.
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