Hans Christian Andersen is the world-famous Danish author who wrote The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling and other fantastic tales.
In the play exhibition, different rooms are created through giant book covers with text and images from Andersen's fairy tales. Between the different book covers there are both small and large openings, so you can move around between the fairy tales almost like in a labyrinth. What is there to play with at the next book cover?
You can play with your own imagination or take on tasks that you find here and there. For example, you can play theater at Dummerjöns and his goat, set a nice table at the Snow Queen, hide in the witch's tree in Elddonet or climb up in the Princess and the Pea's high bed. There are also fancy dress costumes for those who want to be a princess or prince.
Adults can help read the shortened fairy tales on the large book covers, or you can sit down in the reading corner together and read HC Andersen's fairy tales in their entirety. The long walls of the room are painted night blue, which we hope will bring to mind storytimes in the evening.
Hans Christian Andersen lived from 1805 to 1875, in a time that was in many ways very different from our own. But many of his fairy tales still feel relevant and exciting. For example, there are stories about bullying and about daring to go your own way.
The images in the exhibition are made by several different artists who have illustrated Andersen's fairy tales, including the Danish illustrator Svend Otto S. Illustrator Kasia Terczynska has created a new illustration especially for Kulturen, which is used as the exhibition's frontispiece.
The exhibition is primarily aimed at children between 3 and 8 years old.