“The Little Mermaid” (Danish: Den Lille Havfrue), issued by Post Danmark and valued at DKK 14.50, features the famous 4-foot-tall (125cm) bronze sculpture of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid. The stamp is drawn and engraved by Martin Morck. There is a video on Morck’s website detailing his work on it.
Since 1913 (Yup! It has been a hundred years!), the statue has sat at the edge of Copenhagen Harbor. Carl Jacobsen, founder of Carlsberg brewery, gifted the statue to Copenhagen. It was made by Danish-Icelandic sculptor Edvard Eriksen. He started by sculpting the face of a well-known ballerina. When the ballerina did not want to pose nude, Eriksen’s wife posed as the model for the statue’s body. The statue was then cast by Carl N. G. Rasmussen, bronze caster by appointment to the Royal Danish Court.
In 2010, during the World Expo in Shanghai, “The Little Mermaid” was brought there to be featured in the Denmark Pavilion. Danish “starchitect” Bjarke Ingels, whose firm BIG Group designed the pavilion, “abducted” the mermaid, as his Twitter profile so humorously puts it:
To do so, he had to change Denmark’s rule of law that stated that the iconic sculpture may not be removed from the country (That’s how much Danes love their national emblem…there’s a law against its removal). Before the expo, the exact route of the 385-pound (175 kg) statue’s trip to Shanghai was kept secret, out of concern over possible attacks (Don’t laugh. It has happened before. The statue has been vandalized numerous times, including decapitation twice(!), dismemberment and being blasted apart. Poor girl). Here’s a short movie produced by Martin de Thurah about the statue’s journey from Copenhagen.
In Shanghai, at the center of the Danish pavilion is the Harbor Pool. It is essentially a big pool of water. The original plans for the pavilion called for fresh water from the Copenhagen harbor. So not only did they move “The Little Mermaid” to Shanghai, they also wanted to ship water from the harbor there, enough to fill the pool anyway. The idea was dropped though over concerns that the water will no longer be fresh when it reached(?).
When the World Expo was on, the statue sat in the middle of the pool while a live feed video feed of her was broadcasted and shown in her original spot in Copenhagen Harbor. The video installation was created by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. To fulfill your aesthetic quota of the day, pictures of the Denmark Pavilion can be seen at the Danish Business Authority website.
At this point, I feel like there are still not enough fun trivia to learn about the stamp, so here goes another:
In Andersen’s story, the prince betrays the Little Mermaid by taking a human bride, causing her to die and become foam upon the sea. It is claimed that Hans Christian Andersen wrote “The Little Mermaid” as an allegory for his love for another man. [Source] That would explain why the original Little Mermaids’ ending is depressing as hell and I always wondered why…. but there is of course no conclusive proof.
Bonus Trivia!
“The Little Mermaid” statue has a male counterpart called “Han”. “Han” is located in front of the Kronborg Castle (location of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in Elsinore, Denmark. “Han” sits on a similarly-shaped stone in the same way as “The Little Mermaid”, but he is cast in stainless steel and has no fishtail. He blinks too! A hydraulic mechanism shuts the sculpture’s eyes every half-hour. More pics at Designboom.
Source: designboom elmgreen & dragset: han public sculpture in elsinore, denmark installed
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