I had a great visit to the University of Southern Denmark last week. The night before I got shown around the city by Andreas Ostermaier. The day after the workshop I stayed and toured the Hans Christian Andersen museum and house. Lots of pictures below, but first my thoughts on the museum.
Hans Christian Andersen is famous for his fairy tales: The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, etc. I grew up hearing some of those stories from my mother. We have ancestors from Denmark, so we always felt like we had a special connection with the stories.
I expected the museum to have a similar inspirational theme: our potential as individuals, self-confidence, focusing on what really matters, etc.
The museum was nothing like that. Instead, it was quite dark. It portrayed Hans Christian Andersen as a dark, brooding, conflicted person who was filled with self-doubt and felt like he needed validation from others.
I wouldn’t have minded one portion of the exhibit exploring those feelings. For example, the argument that “The Ugly Duckling” is an autobiography, is compelling and can be inspiring. However, the museum made everything be on that theme. Even little side exhibits had to have that same theme. They had souvenirs arguing about who was more important and the inkwell and pen fighting over who was the muse.
They even had an exhibit speculating on his love life, his multiple failed romances, and the possibility that he was gay, simply because he had some male friends and left his estate to one of them (he had no children). Personally I don’t really care about his love life or his sexual orientation.
I would much rather have had exhibits focusing on his rise from poverty, his overcoming obstacles, and the positive effect that his works have had on millions if not billions of people. Instead, we had a dark, depressing museum that left me feeling ill and grateful that I didn’t bring my children.
That being said, I loved seeing his childhood home and town and thinking about the inspiration he has given to the world.
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