Dear Helle

Dear Helle (2014)

Postcards, pins, video interviews

Exhibition Context

Dear Helle
Immigrant Museum, Farum, Denmark, 2014

About this Work

Dear Helle was an installation that invited the public into a dialogue with Denmark’s then–Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Two images of the Prime Minister were surrounded by hundreds of postcards collected from cafés, cultural hubs, and restaurants across Copenhagen. Visitors were encouraged to write and pin their own postcards to her, creating a layered tapestry of public voices.

In collaboration with Trampoline House, workshops were held where refugees and asylum seekers shared their experiences of life in Denmark. These written postcards were later sent to the Prime Minister’s office, blurring the line between art, politics, and civic participation.

Alongside the postcards, I created paper boat sculptures — fragile forms that symbolized migration, movement, and journeys across borders. These boats also carried a personal memory from my childhood, when I would fold paper boats and float them in rainwater after storms. In this installation, they became vessels of both memory and displacement, echoing the stories of those who contributed to the work.

The installation also featured video interviews with migrants, amplifying stories often unheard. The postcards and paper boats—fragile, physical carriers of communication—became symbols of transparency, transition, and temporality in a digitizing world.

Documentation

Installation view — Immigrant Museum, Farum, 2014