Day 2: Copenhagen, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Part II

Copenhagen Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 6:50 PM

First of all, I need to say I really love the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. I could have spent days there instead of only hours. After we explored the sculpture garden and snacked at the restaurant, we toured the indoor exhibitions. By now it’s 1 PM p.m. Copenhagen time, and we’ve been in Denmark for exactly 24 hours. I’ve never experienced this sort of jet lag–seven time zones away from home–and I feel a little disoriented. Plus my feet hurt. Damn, that’s my fault but I refuse to let it stop me.

The first wing we explored was all Giacometti. In the Giacometti Gallery, of course. I’ve loved Giacometti since seeing his work at the Chicago Art Institute when I was a University student, so I was thrilled to see a room filled with his art. And the gallery itself was inspiring–-not dark and artificially lit, but filled with natural lighting from an entire glass wall, the green of the garden from the outside filtering the light.

Giacometti Gallery at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen © 2018 Bo Mackison

Giacometti Gallery at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen © 2018 Bo Mackison

Giacometti Gallery at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen © 2018 Bo Mackison

Giacometti Gallery at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen © 2018 Bo Mackison

Me in Conversation with César Frankrig’s The Big Thumb © 2018 Bo Mackison

There was a thumb. I had a heart to heart conversation with it. My brain was more than a little foggy, so it seemed appropriate to talk to a thumb. It is César Frankrig’s The Big Thumb, 1968, France, Bronze. I had to look it up because I did a lot of forgetting to photograph signage. Usually, I’m good that sort of thing…

Then we went into the special exhibition, The Moon. Over 200 pieces of art–-various media, various styles, various time periods. Stunning.

There’s a full moon tonight. That seems fitting. On our journey through Scandinavia, Germany, and finally Amsterdam, we’ll be traveling in lunar time from full moon to (almost) new moon, through the phase of waning.

It’s the Harvest Moon tonight, not the Corn Moon because tonight’s moon is the nearest full moon to the Autumn Equinox.

From the Louisiana website:

“Along with the MOON exhibition a new work has landed in the Sculpture Park. Polish-German artist Alicja Kwade’s Pars Pro Toto consists of eight spheres carved in rocks obtained from different parts of the world. In her interview with Louisiana Channel, the artist states that the work almost appears as if a God had thrown the planets like when playing marbles.”

After the moon exhibit, we went outside for one last look around. I set down on the bench next to this sphere exhibit and watched the spheres do nothing. I was pretty happy doing nothing too, just sitting surrounded by nature and architecture and art, but there was no other option but to walk to the train station and get on a train heading back to Copenhagen Central.

Here’s where the story got interesting: We’re near exhaustion when we negotiated the mile to the train stop. We needed to buy tickets at the kiosk, but there was a small child pressing all sorts of buttons in his attempt to purchase his family’s tickets. His smiling parents watched, but he was not getting the job done with any punctuality. And then the train was coming. It pulled into the stop and we still had not gotten to the ticket kiosk and Bob said, “I’m not waiting.” And so we got on the train without a ticket, intending to buy the tickets once we got to Central Station. This seemed like an okay plan since no one had been checking our tickets on our earlier rides — when we HAD tickets in hand — but of course this time the conductor stopped and asked us for our tickets.

No tickets.

“You can’t buy tickets on the train,” he said, not too kindly. We pleaded American ignorance. He asked for our passports, which we thankfully had on our persons, and then he told us he’d be back, giving us a disgusted final look. The other passengers avoided looking directly at us and I was so tired I rested my head on the tiny table in front of us and fell asleep. The conductor never did come back and we did buy tickets as soon as we got into the station.

Oh, Lord. The second day in Europe and we’ve already run afoul of the law. I guess all’s well that ends well.

We checked out some great restaurants in the area once we returned to our hotel. But in the end we decided on a pizza in the hotel room. That way we could eat while horizontal. And so we did. There was a Domino’s pizza place nearby, uh no; we opted for a local joint near the University of Copenhagen, close enough to get it carry out. Pizza was fine and sleep is much needed.

And just like that, our first full day in Copenhagen is over.