Vidunderlige Verden

2025

Glass artwork. Variable dimensions. Permanent commission at three locations in a new children’s house in the former H.C. Andersen School in Odense, Denmark.

Vidunderlige Verden gets its title from the Danish author Karin Michaëlis’ (1872–1950) autobiographical work of the same name. Michaëlis wrote for both children and adults and helped to change contemporary views on the child and childhood. Her seven children’s books about the little girl Bibi’s extraordinary journeys were published in 23 countries. Michaëlis’ progressive and empathetic view of children is evident throughout her writing — as when, in The School of Joy (1914), she describes Eugenie Schwarzwald’s pedagogically experimental school in Vienna:

“The school also has the task of teaching the child the proper enjoyment of the present moment. The present, of which the child’s life consists. (…) Childhood could and should be like a thousand-colored, golden rainbow between sun, moon, and stars. And yet this time is sacrificed as a means to an end, when in itself it is the highest and most beautiful goal.”

Several of the children who appear in Michaëlis’ novels are fascinated by colored glass. Like Michaëlis herself as a child, they collect shards of colored glass and experience how the world changes its mood when seen through different colors. Karin Michaëlis lived through two world wars — as a war correspondent during the first, and in exile during the second. Yet she gave her final work the title Wonderful World. Michaëlis’ view of the world and her faith in the goodness of people offer courage and hope — something our own time, too, may well need.

Photos by I DO ART