His peculiar world of fantasy enlightened renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team – also responsible for the new Olympic Stadium in Tokyo – in the novel constitution of the H.C AndersensHus Museum, located in Odense, Denmark.
Modern designs bring dynamism and imagination to more than 9,000 square meters of floor space. In addition to its visible attractions, two-thirds of the European art gallery is subway and just above it the visitor discovers a fairytale garden.
This Eden, created as a public space and inserted in the urban landscape, seeks to reproduce the conflicts, harmony, charm, sinister and chaos of Andersen’s stories, with areas of light, strange trees and hedges cut at right angles.
The site conveys the author’s style, the essential motivation of its creators and there is a communion between the exterior nature and the worldview of the apparently hidden setting, with original expressions such as the possibility of appreciating the sky through an artificial lake, just as the little mermaid Ariel.
The unusual structure adds the expertise of 12 international artists with exclusive pieces for its interior, linked, for example, to the musical interpretation of the narrations or the elaboration of a huge paper installation.
In a bid for an unprecedented tour, the Museum also includes an animated film journey through Andersen’s fantastic work, with his best-known characters and those socially critical or satirical elements present in his stories. This unique universe, enhanced by sounds, images and plastic art, also exhibits witches, mythological beings, princes and princesses, magical animals and incredible as it may seem, heroes and antagonists who dialogue, yearn, suffer and provoke suffering through their interpretation and experiences.
Of course, this place of wonders also includes an area or children’s studio called VilleVau, a confluence of workshops intended for the ‘creative outlet’ of the little ones and artistic experimentation.
According to experts, this is one of the most ambitious museum works of recent years in Denmark, with an approximate cost of 52 million dollars and dedicated to one of the world’s best known intellectuals with almost 200 stories, as well as poems, novels and plays.
(Taken from Orbe)
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