Jes Brinch and Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

Smashed Parking, 1994

Wonderful Copenhagen, Temporary public art project, Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1994

Cars, city bus, caravan

2000 x 1000 x 300 cm

Photo: Dorthe Krogh

Note: The work was made for a summer festival for art in public spaces in 1994 called Art in the City and arranged by the Municipality of Copenhagen and the tourist organisation Wonderful Copenhagen. The work consisted of 18 cars, one caravan, and a public bus placed on Kongens Nytorv, which is traditionally considered to be Copenhagen's most beautiful square because of its classical architecture – the Royal Theatre and the Royal Danish Academy of Art. The exhibition was scheduled to run for three months but it was only on display for four days, from June 15 to June 21. The work was placed on a parking lot in front of Hotel D´Angleterre, a former parking area that had been recreated especially for this event. The work was meant to give the impression that a mad crowd had gone berserk and smashed a public parking lot. Therefore the cars had been worked over with heavy steel tubes. One of the cars had been pushed over onto its side, another was turned upside down, others were still standing on all four wheels. The work included a caravan that had been totally destroyed. The most conspicuous element of the project was the city bus, number 31, which was sited to give the impression that it had been dragged from the nearest bus stop, and overturned during the riot.