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Vestindien Revisited (2017)

VESTINDIEN REVISITED – i kølvandet på kuldampere og cruiseturister

On April 6, 2017 a new exciting exhibition curated by AURA post.doc Natalia Brichet opened at M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark.

The exhibition follows the 100th anniversary of the sale of the West Indies to the United States. It examines how the huge ship traffic to and from the historically important port in St. Thomas for centuries - including 200 years of Danish ownership - still today characterizes the islands' life and development. Interviews with locals from the islands and a collage of past and present tracks from the islands meet in the exhibition to a kaleidoscopic portrait of a society that has always been shaped by the encounter with strangers who have come by sea.

Read more about the exhibition here

 
The Charlotte Amalie harbor in the Virgin Islands always teems with tourists and cruise ships. To prevent algae and barnacle infestation many ships are painted with a copper paint containing the chemical tributyltin (TBT). Samples of sea snails, brought back from the Virgin Island by the Danish research vessel Galathea 3 have shown a high incidence of infertility in the species of Thais deltoidea – likely a direct result of toxic does of TBT. Photo: Ignacio Peña
Findings from Magens Bay Beach, St. Thomas. Camilla Nørgård.
Plastic Ruby. Plastic bag with plastic bags, heat treated. Camilla Nørgård.
Every year 300.000 tourists visit the Virgin Islands- formally a Danish colony now part of the United States- in the Caribbean. Like everywhere else in the world, the plastic trail of humans is growing rapidly here. After seeing sea turtles with plastic straws embedded in their noses, the caretaker of one beach on St. Thomas banned the use of straws. Photo: Ignacio Peña

Reviews of Vestindien Revisited

Revised 10.02.2021
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