a 2009 video piece by Jeannette Ehlers in which she, rendered nearly invisible via video manipulation, performs a vodoun dance in Marienborg which has a strong connection to the Danish slave trade. Ehlers wishes to shed light on the colonial amnesia in Denmark. The artist’s own ethnic background, with a Danish mother and a Father from Trinidad, West Indies, adds extra strength to her works, which use digitally manipulated photographs and video to put the Transatlantic Slave Trade and it’s impact on modern society under the microscope.
The house was built as a summer residence for the Commander Olfert Fischer in 1744, who since sold it to merchant Peter Windt, who also had created a great deal of wealth from the slave and sugar trade, and who even brought slaves with to his home in Denmark. Several others of the period’s trading men have owned and put their stamp on Marienborg, and today it still plays an important role in Denmark, in terms of its position as the official residence of the country’s prime minister.