There is no doubt that the Danish / American world star Viggo Mortensen’s heart beats for Denmark. This he once again demonstrated when he presented his photographs this afternoon at an exhibition at Palæfløjen in Roskilde wearing a reddish-old football jersey, which the Danish football team used in 1960 when the football team won silver during the Olympic Games in Rome.
In the more than 190 photos from all over the world that Viggo exhibits, there are also many Danish motifs, such as from Odense Railway Station and from the Midtjylland landscape around Jystrup, where both his aunt Tulle and uncle Henry live. Among other things, there is a picture of a bird in flight over a forest lake, which Viggo briefly calls ‘Midtjylland’.
And for us Danes, it is in itself an honor that Viggo chooses to be in Denmark today before he is 50 years old on Monday.
-I’m going to celebrate my birthday with my family while I’m in Denmark, but on my birthday I will travel a distant place where I want to be alone and meditating a little over my life. I think it’s a birthday present that I deserve, says Viggo Mortensen.
In peace and quiet at Samsø
It’s no secret that you’re lost in Denmark. Could you also find yourself living here in Denmark to live and live here?
-Yes, maybe I could. But then it should be on Samsø. There you can still be allowed to go a little peace in peace, especially in winter. If they do not build the awful bridge to Samsø, as it might be about building. I strongly oppose that bridge, says Viggo Mortensen.
What fascinates you about Denmark?
-It’s a country where I feel at home. I have a lot of family here and I feel safe here in Midtjylland. But I have also visited Denmark without visiting my family, where I have enjoyed being in Copenhagen, Jutland or Samsø, says Viggo Mortensen.
A happy 50-year-old
How is it that you soon turn round a sharp corner and age 50?
-All things go a bit slower than when I was young. I need to sleep more. I can not run so much longer and I’m surprised when I get sick, Viggo says, adding:
– But I’m extremely happy with life. I have many friends and I have a big family, which I love, also here in Denmark. Through my work, I have had the opportunity to travel around the world where I saw, for example. can take some good pictures. I love traveling, Viggo says, and emphasizes that through his travels he has learned to feel at home in many parts of the world.
Viggo also believes that traveling through nature is naturally an opponent of war because of a more nuanced image of the whole world and its cultures.
Stop Denmark’s War Attitude-
I want to take this opportunity to say that I think it’s a big mistake that Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the government have helped lead Denmark in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s completely stupid and idiotic. And I’m sure 90 percent of Danes think the same, says Viggo Mortensen.
In Viggo Mortensen’s photo exhibition in Roskilde there are landscape and nature pictures from, among others, New Zealand, Argentina, Morocco, Iceland, USA and Denmark. And all images are linked by a so-called line that binds images together.
-There are pictures of forests, mountains and animals. Everything is connected. We are affiliated animals, and we are also somehow even animals. When I see my own pictures, it’s like watching a movie. It is for example one moment in a movie scene, as you remember. That’s how it’s with my pictures too. I remember the places I have been and can travel through the pictures again, says Viggo.
Football fanatic
But for Viggo, life is also other than art. He is deeply fascinated by football and reveals to Ekstra Bladet that he may travel to Argentina in November to see a match with his favorite team San Lorenzo.
“And I would also like to come to Denmark again this spring and see the Danish football team’s match against Albania.