JEANETTE LAND SCHOU

Keep the Commons Wild / Bevar Fælleden vild

The photo series about the wild commons draws on my inner necessity of disorder. As the child of the welfare state, a backlash occurs: I will not be domesticated, I will preserve a portion of chaos. The commons was my childhood playground: Between car wrecks, lead and flashers, we developed ideas about the natives: Indians and cowboys as we saw them on television. Another reality, the tumble ground for play. Illusion and ideal. I'm still drawn to the commons. Now armed, not with the bow and arrow, but with the camera. There are still few untouched areas – with a little effort one can still get lost. Abandon one’s direction, but only briefly. Amager Commons is a terrain vague, a wasteland just a few kilometres from Copenhagen City Center. Most of the Commons is landfill and the area has been used as an open dump right up to 1965. Slowly the commons is included in the city. Copenhagen is growing, and the commons is becoming a well-groomed nature and leisure area.