The artist Christina Egede has worked as a visual artist full-time since 2008 and exhibited both in Denmark and in the United States. Her medium is drawing, painting and digital art. She has also designed knives, cutlery, multi tools, jewelry and wine labels. She has also drawn illustrations for books, photographed for record covers and made graphics for merchandise.
"With her art, Christina Egede seeks down into the city, down between the houses, into the backyards and puts colors and shapes on both people and the city itself. Christina Egede's ink line is dipped in lived life and experiences, which she translates into dancing lines on paper."
- Beat poet and author Claus Høxbroe
The motive: “Ama’r Halshug”!
"You may behead (halshugge) me on Amager (Fælled) if what I say is not true" Something like that is said when what you say is of great importance to you.
A little more colloquially, you can then shorten it to "Ama ́r Fælled" or "Ama ́r Halshug" often at the same time as you run your hand over your neck.
We know that there have been executions on Amager several times over the years, but in relation to the term Ama ́r Halshug, we must go to the beginning of the 1800s. The place is Christianshavns Fælled, formerly Sundbyøster Overdrev. The site is around the current Dalslandsgade 7, where a defensive structure against invasion by the Swedes had been built in the 1700s.
It was called the Swedish Redoubt, when you were going to the place of execution, you came through Christianshavn, out through Amager Port to Amager Landevej and turned left at Markmandsgade. Before reaching the place of execution, you passed Haddock (A large hole where the latrine from the citizens of Copenhagen was dumped). There, just after the haddock, the place of execution was at the Swedish redoubt.
The executions were a form of public celebration and there were many spectators at the event. There were often different rituals as well. For example, some people brought cups or jars to collect blood from the executed. A ritual that was banned at the end of around 1850.
Another ritual was that you do not just chop off the head of the condemned person. The head came on a pole. The condemned also had their bodies broken and dismembered so that their arms and legs could be woven into a wheel. Then the dismembered body was placed on a main road into the city, so you could see what was in store if you didn't obey the law.
After a while, the body parts were placed in a primitive coffin lined with wood wool and placed in the ground at the Slave Cemetery. It was located opposite Our Saviour's Cemetery, where the Dutch Deep is located today.
Today, there is nothing that reveals the terrible events that took place on Amager right up until 1857. At the address there is a pharmaceutical company, and the only thing that points in that direction is the street named Ved Skansen, but then you also must know that it was a redoubt and what it was and was used for.
(Source for most of the episode Ama ́r Halshug is from Ama ́rkanska bedtime stories by Trine Rosley and Boris Boll-Johansen)
Size: A3