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In the conservation workshop, benandsebastian have been restoring their public artwork Suveræn Souverän Suverenur Namminersortoq (Sovereign).

Sept. 2024

Suveræn Souverän Suverenur Namminersortoq (Sovereign) highlights a common yet striking omission in modern European constitutions: nature. The public artwork comprises 16 museum vitrines, which frame 16 living trees in Herthadalen, a wooded kettle hole where the first Danish Constitutional Act Meeting was held in 1854 and where thousands gathered in subsequent decades to hear political speeches and debates.

Each vitrine-framed tree carries a plaque with a title, written in Danish, German, Faroese, and Greenlandic – four central languages of the Kingdom of Denmark. The bases of the vitrines are each inscribed with a clause from the Danish Constitutional Act, amended so that the word ‘King’ is replaced with the word ‘Nature’. Each vitrine is crafted to each individual tree’s form, allowing space for the trunk’s growth.

Just one of the vitrines is cast in solid bronze. While the trees will live on, benandsebastian’s intention has been that the other 15 teak vitrines gradually weather and decay over time. However, following legal action initiated by Skjoldungernes Land National Park because they found the processes of natural weathering and decay unacceptable, benandsebastian have done restoration on the teak vitrines, two years into the artwork’s life.