The Missing Women in History
Only 28 out of nearly 2,500 monuments, statues and memorials in Denmark represent women. Of those 28, only seven portray actual women and not goddesses or legends of fairy tales like the Little Mermaid.
To honor the 50th jubilee of Danish Queen Margrethe II, and in partnership with the Golden Days Festival, Kunsthal Charlottenborg and B.I.G architects, we’re presenting the ”Queens” exhibition. “Queens” honors prominent female figures, with or without a crown, who have impacted art, culture and society in Denmark, but don’t have a statue.
Copenhagen’s iconic King’s Square will be renamed Queen’s Square during the festival and will have a sculptural takeover featuring notable women in Danish history. The art piece will be accompanied by an Instagram audio walk that will guide people through a virtual tour of the city to learn about all the women who don’t have statues in their honor.
Creating an AR Statue
Building a physical statue can take years or even decades to complete, but augmented reality (AR) tools can help us achieve the task much more easily. To highlight the missing female statue representation in Denmark, an AR statue will be created by VideOrbit Studio in partnership with Meta. VideObit Studio is an all-female Dutch company which specialises in augmented reality.
The AR statue will be revealed on the 16th of September and placed virtually in Copenhagen by the Danish Women’s Society to encourage people to honor the women who do not have one, despite their imprint on society.
The Female Gaze
Part of the discussion around the lack of female statues is the way women have been portrayed throughout history. Most visual representations are created by an artist, photographer, journalist or someone trying to show a piece of their world to an audience, which isn’t completely objective.
For centuries, most art has been created by men, for men. This means that the women depicted in the art were seen through a man’s eyes. This is commonly known as “The Male Gaze,” whereby women often have been portrayed as subdued, innocent and without any real power.
Taking inspiration from the theory of The Male Gaze, we’re introducing The Female Gaze, an immersive XR experience developed to raise awareness of how powerful perspective is. The experience lets you create your own version of the iconic art piece Young Girl Preparing Chanterelles (1892) by Danish artist Peter Ilsted. By changing the lighting, angle, backdrop, body language and facial expressions, we can create a multitude of interpretations and entirely change how we analyze an image.
To demonstrate just that, three female Danish photographers — Kia Hartelius, Sigrid Nygaard and Lina Hashim — who specialise in commercial photography, press photography and art, respectively, will create their own versions of the painting. They will be exhibited at Kunsthal Charlottenborg and sold as NFTs to support the Danish Women’s Society.
The XR experience is produced by Meta in collaboration with Kunsthal Charlottenborg and Make Me Pulse, and will be available to everyone on mobile and desktop at www.thefemalegaze.art and in VR from September 9 until the end of February 2023.
Transforming the Way We Learn
The project is part of the Meta Immersive Learning initiative, through which we’re investing $150 million to help develop the next generation of creators, fund high-quality immersive experiences in the metaverse that transform the way we learn and increase access to learning through technology.