It is with both honour and a heavy heart that I stand before you today. I am here to represent my relative, my family, artist, Julie Edel Hardenberg and her husband, Svend Hardenberg who both unfortunately cannot be with us today. Julie asked me to speak on their behalf, and I immediately said of course.

My name is Laali Lyberth. I am a Kalaaleq – an Inuk, a Greenlander. I was born and raised in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland/Kalaallit Nunaat.

Today, I live in Daun, in the heart of the Eifel, with my husband, Sven Nieder – and our daughter Nivikka. We run a publishing house, and since October last year, I have had the honor of leading Inuit Verlag, dedicated to bringing Kalaallisut/Greenlandic literature into the German language.

Though I have made a home here in Germany, my heart remains deeply rooted in the Arctic.

This exhibition – Greenland – Not For Sale – Kalaallit Nunaat Forever is more than an art show. It is a statement. It is a window into a land that has been exploited, and too often silenced.

What do we really know about Greenland? What do we know about its people, its history, its pain, and its resilience? This exhibition invites us all to look deeper and to confront the complex realities of colonialism, climate change, and the longing for independence.

Julie’s art is political, personal, and profoundly necessary. Her work gives a voice to our people that persist despite centuries of colonization.

One of Julie’s most powerful pieces,

Nipangersitassaanngitsut, meaning Those who can‘t be silenced, consists of an enormous Danish flag – Dannebrog – woven into its fabric are strands of dark hair. I remember clearly the night Julie showed me this flag.

I was speechless. It moved me. It descriped me. I had tears.

Julie’s flag bear witness to the voices that have been silenced and the countless lives lost to colonial, theft of language, culture, and land.

Julie’s language project Ikioqatigiilluta– meaning lets do it together – it was a six-month commitment to speak only Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language, in Greenland. It might sound unusual for you, a language project to speak your own language in your own country, but if you do that in Nuuk, there can be servere consequences as Nuuk’s power or elite langauge, is still to this day, danish. This quiet insistence on our own language is still seen as a resistance – and that reveals how deeply colonial structures remain embedded in society and in ourselves.

As part of today’s event, we will also be screening the documentary Stella Polaris Ulloriarsuaq, a film that takes us deep into the heart of Greenland’s changing landscape.

This project was guided by the Greenlandic shaman, Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq – the eldest in my family, my father’s older brother – who carries a message:

“It is easy to melt the ice on the ground. The hardest thing is to melt the ice in the heart of man. Only by melting the ice in the heart of man does man have a chance to change and begin using his knowledge wisely.”

I had the honor of organizing this project, together with filmmaker Yatri N. Niehaus, photographer Nomi Baumgartl, and my husband, photographer Sven Nieder. I invite you to experience this film with open eyes and open hearts.

I also want to speak briefly about Inuit Verlag. Our mission is to bring Greenlandic literature to German-speaking readers.

Today we are proud to present two of our publications: Bestiarium Groenlandicum and Sila. These are not mere translations – they are acts of cultural preservation and invitations to see Greenland as a nation with a living, evolving culture.

I’m also happy to announce that Stella Polaris Ulloriarsuaq will have its second edition at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Greenland is not for sale. 

We Inuit/Kalaallit/Greenlanders: We are artists, we are writers, we are activists, we are filmmakers, and we are thinkers who refuse to be silenced. We are reclaiming our narratives, our language, our land, and our future.

This exhibition, this film, these books – they are all part of that reclamation. They are reminders that Greenland is not a blank canvas for others to project their fantasies or ambitions upon.

On behalf of Julie and on behalf of all those who carry the stories of Greenland in their hearts – I thank you for being here today. I thank the Frankfurter Kunstverein for hosting this vital exhibition, and I thank the ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum and team for their collaboration.

I will end with these words from Julie:

“my language is the landscape through which I navigate-so full of life and traces of living. I know my landscape-it isnt like yours.

Qujanarujussuaq. Vielen Dank.

5 screens with interviews with:
Hans Hinrichsen, director of the Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum in Sisimiut;
Mariane Paviasen, politician and activist;
Malik Vahl Rasmussen, Greenland ice exporter;
Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Minister of Mining in the Greenlandic government;
Greg Barnes, geologist, investor, instigator of the Tanbreez project.
4-6 min each

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

Greenland is rich in mineral resources: metals, gemstones, coal, graphite, uranium, oil, gas and rare earth elements. Around 120 mining projects with international investors are currently awaiting approval. With his Tanbreez project near Qaqortoq, Australian entrepreneur Greg Barnes is planning to mine one of the largest deposits of rare earth elements. Rare earth elements are used in the manufacture of smartphones, LEDs, electric motors and wind turbines. Mining in Greenland will make Europe and North America less dependent on production from China, which currently dominates the market. However, mining projects are controversial.

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

Alcohol consumption, fishing, global warming, Inuit, independence, forced contraception. These are just 6 of 29 key phrases that provide an insight into the facts and perspectives of Greenland today. This room explores in more detail the themes that shape everyday life in Greenland. The exhibition magazine goes into even more detail. It is available at the ticket office.

The Inuit on the east and west coasts do not speak the same language. But music, with lyrics mostly sung in Kalaallisut, brings together the people on the world’s largest island. Making music is popular in Greenland. Song lyrics are a medium for vocalising Greenland’s issues and a forum for being heard. The playlists in this room represent the best of Greenlandic music including pop, rock, rap, reggae, country and classics, selected by the Greenlanders who contributed to the exhibition and supported by Inunnguaq Petrussen, the lead singer of the band ‘Inuk’.

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

Greenland’s ice masses are melting. But climate is just one amongst many drivers of change. The world’s largest island is on the way to independence from Denmark, its former colonial ruler. Greenland has the world’s largest deposits of rare earth elements, which are needed for the transition to renewable energy, and it will soon be ready to participate in this market. Greenland is investing in new airports to further promote the rapidly growing tourism sector. Greenland’s economy needs more labour and is finding it in Thailand and the Philippines. New beginnings and a pioneering spirit, but also contradictions and dilemmas characterise Greenland today. We show how Greenlanders are shaping and experiencing these changes and discover parallels to the part of the world we live in.

Nuan` (great), 2011
Print on rigid foam board, framed
180 x 180 cm

Unmask, #10, 2017
Unmask, #6, 2017
Unmask, #1, 2017
3 prints on rigid foam board
119,7 x 100 cm each

Nipangersitassaanngitsut (Those who can’t be silenced), 2017
Fabric, human hair
227 x 300 cm

Meant to meet, 2024
Fabric, human hair
100 x 140 cm each

Whitewashed – heritage, 2021
Wood, human hair
3,5 x 70 cm each

Made in, #1, 1995
12 prints on paper, framed
30,5 x 40,5 cm each

Courtesy Julie Edel Hardenberg

“My mother was born under the Danish flag – Dannebrog, while Greenland was a colony.
I was born under the Danish flag – Dannebrog, while Greenland was a Danish county.
My children were born under the Greenlandic flag – Erfalasorput, while we had Greenland Home Rule Government.
Three generations. Three paradigms.” – Julie Edel Hardenberg

Julie Edel Hardenberg, called Paneraaq in Kalaallisut, was born in Nuuk in 1971. Her work engages with the history, Inuit cultures, and colonial experience of Greenland. Language plays a central role in this: Julie Hardenberg speaks Inuit Kalaallisut, Danish, Norwegian, English, and Swedish. This multilingualism enables the artist to understand diverse identities, as demonstrated in her early photographic work Made in, #1 (1995). In it, the artist portrays herself twelve times from the front in a passport photo format, altering her clothing and hairstyle. As a result, the viewer reads the same body through twelve entirely different cultural affiliations.

Hardenberg explores language as an expression of dominance and state power in the relationship between Greenland and Denmark. For her project Ikioqatigiilluta, Hardenberg places herself in everyday situations where she speaks exclusively in Kalaallisut and logs people’s reactions. Although Kalaallisut has been declared the sole official language in Greenland since 2009, Danish still prevails. The history of the Danish language in Greenland is inextricably linked to Danish colonial policy, the assimilation of the indigenous Inuit population, and the subsequent pursuit of cultural independence.

Denmark regularly occupies top positions in international rankings regarding quality of life, happiness, and friendliness. What remains unsaid is the colonial past and its impact on the people of Greenland. Consequently, this violent colonial history is downplayed, and Denmark is described as a “nice coloniser.” Hardenberg addresses and humorously condenses this fact in her work Unmask (2017). In this series, a traditional Inuit mask takes center stage on the poster. The mask always has its mouth bandaged. Hardenberg adds handwritten comments or calls to action in Kalaallisut—such as “Tamatta” (all together) or “Eqqartortigu” (let’s talk about it)—to individual political terms like “democracy” or “internal coloniser.”

In the work Those who can’t be silenced – Nipangersitassaanngitsut, Julie Hardenberg sews black hair around the outlines of the white cross of the Danish flag. In postcolonial politics, black hair is a fiercely contested bodily feature. It reflects the struggle against the historical enforcement of Eurocentric beauty standards—a symbol bound up with power, identity, and resistance.

In Meant to meet from 2024, the binary division between black and white is at the heart of Hardenberg’s work. Black hair stands out against a white textile, and conversely, blonde hair against a black one. The stark divisions into colour zones symbolize political policies of exclusion and demarcation.

The 2021 work Whitewashed – heritage consists of two dish brushes lying side by side, one with black hair and one with blonde hair. Each brush contains a lock of the other hair color: black for Inuit and blond for Danish hair. Brushes are everyday objects used for cleaning. The cultural practice of whitewashing stems from a Western perspective and pressures non-white people to assimilate and to “cleanse” and alter their physical characteristics. By using the word Heritage, Hardenberg acknowledges the fact that people adapt culturally over time and adopt characteristics of other cultures. Sharp divisions and categories are not natural realities but human-made, ideological constructs.

Alongside her artistic work, Julie Hardenberg is a doctoral candidate and researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to her academic texts, she writes literary works for children, which focus on narratives that strengthen cultural awareness and are written in the Kalaallisut language.

Julie Edel Hardenberg (*1971 Nuuk, GL), also known as Paneeraq, is an Inuk-Kalaaleq artist and researcher. She lives and works between Copenhagen (DK) and Nuuk (GL), and her artistic practice spans visual art, multimedia, and practice-based research. She is a PhD candidate at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she also completed her MA in Art Theory and Communication. She also studied art in Finland, Norway, and England. Hardenberg has published five books; her work has been exhibited internationally and has received several awards and nominations, including for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the Carnegie Art Award, and the Anna Norlander Prize. In 2022, her contribution to the project Voices in the Shadows of Monuments was awarded a prize by the Danish Arts Council. Her works are held in the collections of Carlsberg Fonden (DK), the World Museum (NL), Statens Kunstfond (DK), Christiansborg (DK), Museet for Fotokunst (DK), Dansk-Grønlandsk Kulturfond (DK), the Greenland National Museum (GL), the Nordic Investment Bank (FI), and Musée de l’Élysée (CH).

3 screens with interviews with:
Chantal Zeppenfeld, Climate researcher, PhD student;
Thomas Stocker, Professor emeritus, Former Head of Climate and Environmental Physics Division of the Physics Institute;
Prof. Hubertus Fischer, Head oft he Climate and Environmental Physics Division of the Physics Institute.
4-6 min each

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

Greenland ice is studied at the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics, part of the University of Bern’s Physics Institute. The ice samples come from drill cores taken by international teams from the ice sheet over many years. The oldest ice is over 120 000 years old. This makes Greenland the most important climate archive on Earth alongside the Antarctic – a hotspot for international climate research. The ice samples provide insights into the climate of the past and a glimpse of the climate crisis today and in the future. How politics and society react to these findings is another challenge.

6 screens with interviews with:
Atsiannguaq Olsen, student and musician;
Justine Olsen, Garment maker;
Jonas Kristinsen, hunter and champion dog sled racer;
Martin Olsen, Municipal worker, hunter;
Meko Jensen, school principal and teacher;
Birgitta Kammann Danielsen, a social worker and teacher who has moved to Greenland from Germany.
4-7 min each

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

The village of Kullorsuaq lies far north of the Arctic Circle, 200 kilometres from the nearest hospital. Life revolves around fishing and hunting as well as the village with its shop, school, community and family work. During the ice-free period, the supply ship comes every two weeks. It brings groceries and consumer goods and takes the locally caught, frozen fish. Those who want to pursue higher education move away and usually never come back. Leave or stay? Live the tradition or give it up? These are questions that particularly young villagers ask themselves.

6 screens with interviews with:
Matthias Burkert and Matthias Hütter, German outdoor tourists;
Flemming Bisgaard, logistics entrepreneur;
Nukaaka Lund-Mathæussen, student of building services engineering;
Looqi Schmidt, hunter and lecturer at the College of Social Pedagogy;
Ulrik Amdi Sørensen, Chief Operating Officer at the four-star hotel “Arctic”;
Zhiling Xiong and Lu Jiao, tourists from Boston, USA.
3-6 min each

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

The ice fjord is world-famous and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.

The icebergs that glide into the ocean here attract tourists from all over the world. They arrive by plane and cruise ship. And the numbers are increasing. Ilulissat is now building a new airport where large aircraft from Paris and New York will be able to land. Hotels are upgrading, but there is no shortage of critical voices. They warn against hasty development. Who will benefit? Who will miss out? What kind of tourism does Greenland need?

3 screens with interviews with:
Ellen K. Frederiksen, teacher, B&B proprietor and sheep farmer;
Kim Neider, agronomist and director of the Experimental in Upernaviarsuk;
Tupaarnaq Kreutzmann Kleist, sheep farmer, hunter and ex-ski racer.
4-5 min each

Courtesy ALPS Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern

On the approach to Narsarsuaq, the lush green meadows of Qassiarsuk stand out of the fjord landscape. It was here in the 10th century that the Vikings gave Greenland its name (which means ‘grassland’) and it has stuck to this day. Greenland’s agriculture is expanding: sheep farming for meat production and the cultivation of vegetables without the use of pesticides, like potatoes, cabbage and beets. Even strawberries and tomatoes are grown in the greenhouses of the state-run Experimental Farm. Greenland wants to become less dependent on expensive food imports. Climate change is working to its advantage.