Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better
Details9
- No.
- 0298
- Date
- 16 Jan 2025
- Type
- Exhibition
- Place
- Hvidovre Hovedbibliotek, Hvidovrevej 280, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
- Series
- Frihed, lighed og Hip-Hop
- Support
- The Danish Arts Foundation, Discretionary Fund of Hvidovre Municipality, Hvidovre Libraries
- Thanks
- Svend Vibe Dahlgren, Trine Friedrichsen, Majken Hansen, Dorte Bach, Henriette Laura Astrup, Rasmus Hurtig, Tania Ørum, Michael Boelt Fischer
- Resembles
- 0158 Melting State
- Read as
- ORANGE 36%, MID, EVEN, DETAILED
- Links
- www.hvidovrebib.dk
HVIDOVRE GØR GODE TIDER BEDRE (Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better) is an exhibition at Hvidovre Main Library, part of the ongoing project Freedom, Equality and Hip-hop, which connects unrealised dreams of a Danish welfare state with early local DIY hip-hop.
The exhibition borrows its title from 1960, when the Social Democratic Party campaigned under the slogan “Make Good Times Better”. At that time, Denmark experienced economic growth and falling unemployment, and society was marked by optimism and collective visions of a better future — hopes that are harder to find today.
Through AI-generated images and counterfactual storytelling, the exhibition envisions a self-built utopia in Hvidovre. Local rumours, past dreams, and forgotten figures merge with the town’s documented history across media: an interactive video installation, posters, sound works, and music.
Just as hip-hop DJs once transformed the turntable from a playback device into a creative instrument, this project reimagines Hvidovre’s history as speculative fiction. Algorithms originally trained for advertising are repurposed to remix the town’s architecture and stories into new visions of community and possibility.
All works intentionally carry imperfections — too many fingers, floating houses, distorted details — which reveal their fictional origins. The project emphasizes local DIY spirit, encouraging citizens to reimagine Hvidovre’s past and future.
Previous iterations of Freedom, Equality and Hip-hop have appeared at Kongegaarden (Korsør), Sydhavn Station (Copenhagen), Friisland (Copenhagen Nordhavn), Survival Kit Biennial (Riga, Latvia), and F.eks. (Aalborg). In 2025, the project will travel to Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington, and Aarhus.
All images were generated using Flux.1 diffusion models from Black Forest, on a used computer powered by green-certified Nordic solar, wind, and hydro energy. While not free from environmental impact, this approach reflects an effort to minimize resource use and ecological harm in the project’s production.
