100% Foreign? – 100 selected portraits

DATE: 29 July-6 Sept. 2020
PLACE: Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen K
CATEGORY: Outdoor exhibition

 

When are you Danish and when are you a foreigner? How do minorities get more speaking time? The exhibition project 100% Foreign? brings the debate out into the public space with 100 selected portraits in text and photo of and with citizens with refugee backgrounds.

The portraits are shown on Kgs. Nytorv in Copenhagen as the first exhibition at the newly renovated square July 29 – 6 Sept.

The original exhibition with 100 portraits was shown at Copenhagen City Hall in 2017, before touring to 22 Danish cities, where new portraits were added along the way. In total, approx. 200,000 have seen the exhibition since 2017. 100 out of the now total of 250 portraits from all over the country are shown on Kgs. Nytorv. The selection is curated by the exhibition’s photographer/curator Maja Nydal Eriksen.

 

 

Former refugees take the floor

100% Foreign? is portraits of citizens who were granted asylum in Denmark between 1956 and today. They statistically represent the total of 167,000 people from primarily 30 countries who have come here as refugees during the period.

Politicians, media, etc. often talk about refugees, but rarely with them. Thus, ‘refugees’ remain an abstraction, a category.

With 100% Foreign?, the former refugees themselves take the floor. Who are they? What is important to them? And what is it like to live in Denmark today? The exhibition shows 100 portraits, which in text and photo provide an insight into what it means to be human in Denmark today – foreign or not.

Meet the people behind the numbers

The starting question for the 250 interviews was: How foreign do you feel? It led to 250 conversations that provide a nuanced and personal insight into the lives of these people with all their universally human joys and sorrows. They show how nationality is only one of many reasons to feel alienated today, and point to what we have in common.

 

 

Modern landscape portraits

100% Foreign? challenges the national romantic presentation about nation and people and places the participants as part of the official image of Denmark. The participants pose in characteristic cultural landscapes in the cities they come from – places that connect the national with the global: Tivoli, the Viking Ship Museum, Dybbøl Mill, Skagen Strand, Gellerupparken, and more. The portraits create an alternative to the often heavy, socially realistic portrayal of people with a refugee background.

Danish refugee history personified

In addition to being a series of personal portraits, 100% Foreign? is also an insight into Danish refugee policy from a highly individual point of view.

To begin with, the refugees came from Hungary, Russia, Poland, Vietnam, etc., while in recent years most have come from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Some have lived here for over 60 years, others for quite a short time. What can the former refugees tell about how they were received in Denmark? How have they felt the Danish refugee policy and debate on their own bodies? Do they feel represented in the debate?

Explore the exhibition from 29 July until 6 Sept. The exhibition is open around the clock.

See all 250 portraits on www.100pctfremmed.dk

 

• 100% Foreign? is produced by Metropolis – Københavns Internationale Teater in collaboration with photographer/curator Maja Nydal Eriksen and the 250 participants.
• The exhibition 100% Foreign? is supported by The Danish Arts Foundation, City of Copenhagen, Sportgoodsfonden, Interkulturelt Center and Knud Højgaards Fond. The tour was supported by Nordea-fonden and the participating cities/municipalities

 

Read more about previous presentations of 100% Foreign in the archive.