SCREENING: FILM WORK BY NIELS ØSTERGAARD MUNK

This year's solo exhibitor, Niels Østergaard Munk, participates with the film installation Right after the war, I was sure that I could find the place. The work depicts the couple Ib and Helle, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts during the occupation and were strongly committed to the resistance. Ib Mogens Bech Christensen was a pacifist and conscientious objector and had over the thirties looked with great concern at what was going on around Europe. Through the resistance work established around Bizzie Høyer's preparatory painting school, he met Helle Monies. Together, during 1943 they formed their own group, the 1944 group. In the spring of the following year, Ib and Helle became aware that they were expecting a child, and they married in Sweden the day after Ib's 25th birthday. A month later, Ib was killed in a shootout with German police a week and a half before the liberation. Helle remained in exile in Sweden until liberation, which was the worst day of her life; while the whole country cheered, she was told of Ib's death. Three months later, on peace day on August 15, when Japan finally surrendered and the world war officially ended, Helle gave birth to a baby girl. She was named Lone, who was Helle's alias during the occupation.