The Attitudes of Ida Brun

A Performance Lecture and a Virtual Reality experience.

Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, 13 May-11th of June 2017

Ida Brun (1792-1857) was the daughter of the writer Friederike Brun, who was also a hostess of salons for artists and politicians, and the granddaughter of Balthasar Münter, pastor at the German church in Copenhagen. Like several other influential citizens with a German background in Copenhagen, they were influenced by the new democratic ideas in Europe of their time, and they did their best to introduce these ideas in Denmark.

Ida Brun became famous for her so-called attitudes, where she would mimic famous greek and roman statues. She was admired all over Europe, by Goethe, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Madame de Staël and many others. Like Lady Hamilton, she could be called one of the worlds first performance artists. Tematically, she was probably related to Thorvaldsen and his works in marble. But her medium was the body, and so she was forgotten. Until now.

Duration: 60 minutes

Performers: Ellen Friis, Dagmar Vestergaard Friis

Virtual reality design: Henrik Vestergaard

In 2019 The Attitudes were included in our version of Playing Up at Copenhagen Contemporary.