COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.- GL STRAND presents Hans Christian Andersen’s Labyrinth - An installation in light and sound by Steven Scott, on view through April 24, 2005. GL STRAND invites you on a journey of the senses through H.C. Andersen’s life. This labyrinthine exhibition blends light, sound, image, text and live performance to create a contemporary fairytale about H.C. Andersen, in celebration of his 200-year jubilee.

The exhibition transforms GL STRAND into a labyrinth of darkened rooms and passageways. Light installations, moving images and a soundscape of fairytales and whispering voices invite visitors on a journey of the senses through H.C. Andersen’s life – his childhood, his emotions and his art. The result is a new and surprising interpretation of Denmark’s world-famous writer as a timeless and forever contemporary artist.

The exhibition crisscrosses the boundaries between visual art, literature and live performance. Taking up six rooms, it was created by the British light artist and production designer Steven Scott, who among other things is known for his stage productions for the Royal Ballet in London and the Peter Schaufuss Ballet, as well as his collaborations with the British film director Peter Greenaway and the British artist Sir Anthony Caro.

Steven Scott’s light installations create a series of poetic images, taking visitors on a journey through H.C. Andersen’s life – from his impoverished childhood in Odense, to his encounters with the cultural elite in Copenhagen, and his life-affirming travels in Europe, but also through his fairytales and deep into his soul. The labyrinth winds its way through the Childhood Room, the High Society Room, the Travel Room, the Microcosm Room, the Thousand Poems and the Letter Room. The atmosphere changes constantly and makes the journey through the labyrinth unpredictable.

The texts in the rooms are written by the young Danish author Palle Sigsgaard. They range from fragments of H.C. Andersen’s fairytales and memories to new poetry, discussions, conversations over coffee, inner thoughts and prose pieces. Each text is closely linked to a visual expression. Some of the texts have their own unique atmosphere and style, but all revolve around H.C. Andersen’s mind and world. Palle Sigsgaard also performs live in the installation as the labyrinth’s storyteller, reading aloud from H.C. Andersen’s fairytales and letters.

The exhibition is at once funny and serious, cryptic and clear – a total experience that can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages and from all backgrounds, like H.C. Andersen’s own fairytale world.

GL STRAND also offers visitors coffee in the H.C. Andersen Café on the first floor. Lin Utzon has designed a café that makes use of her H.C. Andersen coffee set, which has already won the DESIGN-PLUS award.