Melting Barricades
Melting Barricades was a collaborative art project by Inuk Silis Høegh and me in the form of a recruitment campaign for a fictional Greenlandic army consisting of propaganda material, videos, posters, and installations. The project was developed and realised in 2004 as a comment to the 25th Greenlandic Home Rule Anniversary and Denmark being at war in Iraque. Since its inception it has been presented at numerous exhibitions, books & magazines, and has now with US interest in Greenland been re-actualized in an almost eerie way. Reflected in a different media landscape and an escalating geopolitical situation, the images, films and props in Melting Barricades relate to a new reality.
As the curators from Kalmar Art Museum write: "20 years ago, Melting Barricades reversed perspectives and explored an alternative reality, where a Greenlandic army intended to militarily invade Denmark and then the rest of the world. For Inuk Silis Høegh and Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen, it was important to defend Greenlandic identity and culture in relation to a larger world. It was a public project that engaged the local community with relatively simple means. The idea was to communicate, spark debate and, by changing perspectives, shed light on issues of sovereignty, values and Greenland’s colonial relationship with Denmark."
In collaboration with Nuuk Art Museum, Melting Barricades will now be on display at Kalmar konstmuseum from the 4th of October to 18th of January 2026..
Below are some images from the project - please contact me if you want to see more.
Link to propaganda video:
Melting Barricades
Melting Barricades was a collaborative art project by Inuk Silis Høegh and me in the form of a recruitment campaign for a fictional Greenlandic army consisting of propaganda material, videos, posters, and installations. The project was developed and realised in 2004 as a comment to the 25th Greenlandic Home Rule Anniversary and Denmark being at war in Iraque. Since its inception it has been presented at numerous exhibitions, books & magazines, and has now with US interest in Greenland been re-actualized in an almost eerie way. Reflected in a different media landscape and an escalating geopolitical situation, the images, films and props in Melting Barricades relate to a new reality.
As the curators from Kalmar Art Museum write: "20 years ago, Melting Barricades reversed perspectives and explored an alternative reality, where a Greenlandic army intended to militarily invade Denmark and then the rest of the world. For Inuk Silis Høegh and Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen, it was important to defend Greenlandic identity and culture in relation to a larger world. It was a public project that engaged the local community with relatively simple means. The idea was to communicate, spark debate and, by changing perspectives, shed light on issues of sovereignty, values and Greenland’s colonial relationship with Denmark."
In collaboration with Nuuk Art Museum, Melting Barricades will now be on display at Kalmar konstmuseum from the 4th of October to 18th of January 2026..
Below are some images from the project - please contact me if you want to see more.
Link to propaganda video:
Marching
2004
Marching the central street of Nuuk together with Inuk Silis Høegh
Intelligence
2004
Propaganda poster for the initial drafting campaign.
DENMARK
2004
Poster for the exhibition at Nordatlantens Brygge in Copenhagen, showing Denmark with Greenlandic names and covered with ice sheets.
Melting Barricades
2022
Presentation of the project at New Red Order exhibition at Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.
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