Queer in the church

Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre is one of my favourite contemporary art museums in the city. Located in the old church Saint Nikolaj right in the middle of the city, just behind the main walking street Strøget, it has such a clam and secluded space which gives the art experience a certain clam and ease I haven’t found anywhere else. On a hot summer day it is a cool place to slip in to and they almost always have really interesting exhibitions.

These days the city is filled with homo sports fans as we are hosting the World Outgames 2009. For this occasion Nikolaj has put on a really interesting exhibition about memory and history in relation to gender and sexuality. The exhibition is called 'Lost and Found Queerying the Archive' and it combines many different works from international artists.

One of them is the artist called Cecillia Barriga who in her work Two Queens has taken two of Hollywood silent cinema's biggest stars Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in each of their signature roles and put them together in a 'fake' on screen lesbian love affair.

I made Nikolaj place of the month because it's such a special place both for it's art and the actual historical feeling the building has. It is one of the oldest churches in Copenhagen- originally from the 1200s I think and it has survived wars, fires and its tower can be seen in the city skyline everywhere, even though the actual chuch is really small.

You know you're a Nerd Girl when....

... you start getting your fashion inspiration from the library website.


The Royal Danish Library has been known as a closed up, dark and very nerdy place . But in the last ten years things have started to change. In 1999 the architecture was updated with The Black Diamante, a huge glasslike black building with an amazing view over the Copenhagen habour, new and more modern reading rooms.
The original library building dates back to the really early days of The University of Copenhagen - that's in the 1400s and it really shows . The old reading rooms look like something out of Harry Potter.
Now the latest new development in the modernisation of The Royal Library is an online gimmick featuring all the catalogues of the legendary Danish department store Daelles Varehus. And it is so much fun to look through and very inspirational.
The department store does not exist anymore, but was from its beginning in the early 20th century a popular place for Copenhagen ladies to shop. The website has all of the catalogues online, from the very first in 1914 to the early 1990 when Dealles Varehus closed. I actually remember looking through some of the x-mas catalogues as a child in the 1980s, but I do think that the older ones are more fun to look at now.

Celebrating political women

On Sunday - tomorrow- it's the 100 th anniversary for the Danish women’s right to vote and be elected in local elections – an important milestone on the road to women's complete right vote, which came in Denmark in 1915. Tomorrow a huge celebration will take place in the Town Hall square with open air concerts with among others the cool JaConfetti, delicious foods and a lot of interesting debates going on about women in politics. All over town powerful women – not only politicians – are interviewed in public about their different roads to power. I love these type of historical event and I think it's important to recognise the historical perspectives in our democratic development. Without the efforts of historical nerd girls and women a hundred years ago our reality would look completely different.

The very cool Danish artist Katirne Ærtebjerg has put her picture on the poster as you see above. Her artwork can also be seen on her website and she also has a piece at the Danish National Gallery. I really like her imaginary cartoon-like world, it is spooky with fairytale facination. Her heavy brush strokes and the strong colours remind me a bit of O’keefe’s pictures.A special scarf has been designed by Danish designer Susanne Rützou to mark the occasion.
It is inspired by the classical PLO-scarf, but it’s pink and decorated with small women’s symbols and 100-signs. I think it's a cool way of marking this historical event and the design is modern, but perfect for all types of women.
It can be bought tomorrow at the town hall square and then on at Susanne Rützou’s own shop here in Copenhagen.
So all Nerd Girls unite and come to the celebration tomorrow - it will be going on all day!