By Arleen Pushparajah, Jessica Rasmussen & Lea Vyff Blauenfeldt

In these days of Danish politics and society discussing the meaning of certain cultures and the influence in and of Danish culture and society, it can be hard to view any cultural display with an open mind. However, walking through the doors of David’s Collection we were on the quest of having an open mind, in particular as none of us had the slightest idea of what to expect, being neither the big museum-goers or holding much knowledge of what the term ‘Islamic Art’ actually pertained.

The size of the museum in its entirety immediately came off as somewhat impressive and massive. Walking up the stairway, to the two Islamic exhibitions on the top floors, you pass the first floors and its doors to other exhibitions. As we were focused on our “mission of the day” we did not pay much attention to the other floors going up, other than noticing the massiveness of the building. Before actually realising that we had reached the top floor we were somehow aware, as we in the stairway faced a very tall speer-looking object, very beautifully crafted in a way that seems similar to art one could have seen traveling e.g. in Asia – the smaller sign next to it told us it is a Standard. We entered the exhibition hall, realizing the craftiness of this museum (or at least this exhibition). The exhibition is divided into smaller rooms, with not too much space for more viewers to the same piece, inevitably somewhat forcing you to “face” the art on your own. You have entered the Islamic sphere, as the museum describes the exhibition. Through the art, and the small classical museum-signs offering explanations, the exhibition tells the history of the Islamic sphere. You go through rooms displaying ceramics, pages of the Koran crafted with gold, jewelry and paintings.

By slowly walking through these small rooms, watching, reading and learning you are with small steps, incorporated into this broader history, led through and witnessing a somewhat different Islam than what is usually portrayed in Danish media, social discourse and the ongoing debate on cultural differences. This becomes evident as the exhibition claims to display the human figure in Islamic art, while it also displays the ambiguity of different interpretations of Islam through the art. In relation, it was surprising to see how some of the paintings depicted women and the romance between Islamic couples in a rather unexpected and unconventional way. One painting in particular depicts a woman with bare breasts in an exotic landscape. This style of depiction is stated to originate from 17^th-century Iran under the influence and exchanges of West European illustrations. While this style of illustration is a sub-genre within Islamic art and is rather uncommon, it says something about the developments, history and influences that different regions have had.

Walking out the doors of the exhibition it is almost as if entering a completely different world. The colors, the patterns, the gold, the very meticulous details and the dim lights, almost darkness that surrounded it, are all gone.

Walking down the stairway the piece in the following picture is hanging on a lower floor. Neither of us realized it being there when walking up, but now it almost claims attention, its purity (not in the metaphorical understanding of the word, but it being without color) and simplicity stands in stark contrast to the Islamic sphere from where we just came.