Figure 21: Hvidovre Beach
In the late 1970s, while neighbouring municipalities waited for state grants to fund their artificial beaches, Hvidovre’s residents took matters into their own hands. It began with a spontaneous act: families emptied their children’s sandboxes and spread the sand over the muddy beach.
Weekend after weekend local residents gathered to build their own beach. Craftsmen constructed simple dikes, pensioners organised seaweed collection, and those with access to construction sites transported surplus sand to the beach. Word spread through hip-hop networks across Denmark, and soon trucks loaded with sand arrived from construction sites in Aarhus and Odense. This grassroots effort became a popular alternative to the large state-led beach improvement projects in Køge Bay.
Through this initiative, Hvidovre’s citizens created not just a bathing beach, but a community-managed space. To this day local residents maintain the beach through communal workdays. Known as “the secret beach,” they prefer to keep it unknown to outsiders. Here, generations of Hvidovre citizens continue to gather, caring for the place they built and nurtured together over the years.
“Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better” An exhibition by Kristoffer Ørum at Hvidovre Central Library 16 January - 28 February 2025 Opening Hours: Monday: 10:00-19:00 Tuesday-Friday: 10:00-18:00 Saturday-Sunday: 10:00-16:00 Venue: Hvidovre Central Library, Hvidovrevej 280, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark A2 prints available for 50 EUR each at oerum.tpopsite.com This counterfactual art project merges AI-generated imagery with human-written narratives to explore an alternative history of Hvidovre. Through this reimagining, the exhibition examines how the cultural intersection of local DIY hip-hop culture and labour movements might have shaped this Danish suburb differently. Supported by: Danish Arts Foundation, Hvidovre Municipality Discretionary Fund, and Hvidovre Libraries Acknowledgements: Svend Vibe Dahlgren, Trine Friedrichsen, Majken Hansen, Dorte Bach, Henriette Laura Astrup, Rasmus Hurtig, Tania Ørum, Miriam Boolsen, Michael Boelt Fischer, and all hip-hop artists and labour movement participants in Hvidovre. #frihedlighthedoghiphop #freedeomequalityandhiphop #thisisnothistory #HvidovreMakesGoodTimesBetter #HvidovreGøreGodeTiderBedre #speculativehistory #AIart
