World-famous photographer Søren Solkær choose Skt Petri Hotel in the heart of Copenhagen’s Latin Quarter to create an art project along with some of the brightest stars of Copenhagen.
“When you enter a hotel, it is like entering a theater or a movie, where one becomes part of the performance. That fascinates me,” he says. “In a hotel you also get the opportunity to be another version of yourself. Daily life can be overlooked and you can make room to immerse yourself or focus on new sides of yourself. I have created a number of portraits in the hotel universe to investigate it further,” Solkær adds.
Textrures throughout Skt Petri hotel makes it really photogenic. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a white wall. Everything is designed. Nothing is accidental, and on the top floors you have a view of Copenhagen’s roofs and sprouts.
The Norwegian ‘hotel king’ Petter Stordalen and Norwegian designers at Wille Interior have managed to impress the Danes.
Søren Solkær has lived in the Latin Quarter himself and has chosen five people to be portrayed according to their connection to the old part of Copenhagen.
“Scholars, philosophers, artists, actors and writers have at all times populated Old Copenhagen,” says Solkær. “The people chosen are based on their personality and artistic weight, as well as their affiliation with Copenhagen.”
The contributors to the project are musicians Steen Jørgensen, Karl Emil and Mette Lindberg, actor Pilou Asbæk and fashion designer Henrik Vibskov.
The contributors have been staged in the hotel’s rooms, hallways and foyer. They were asked to bring personal belongings that would be put into play on the pictures. Henrik Vibskov entered the hotel with three huge bunches of salami from an art project in Paris. Steen Jørgensen brought classical literature.
The result is 12 works, 4 of them are in the same picture, fully voyeuristic as a Hopper painting. However, it’s not a painting, because photos have an inherent reference as truthful witness to reality, where you think that what you see actually occurred.
Skt Petri Hotel in the heart of Copenhagen has got a new design by the design team behind The Thief Hotel in Oslo. There are 20 new rooms, a new restaurant and bar and a backyard and a fitness area. The hotel has 288 rooms and 26 suites. Bjørn Nørgaard has stuffed the hotel with art.
For almost 15 years, Hotel SKT. PETRI in inner Copenhagen has been a place for local and international guests with a well-developed sense of luxury. Now it’s taken to new heights with the new design. Hotel Director Jesper
Stubgaard says that the goal of the hotel is not only to be a place for international guests, but also to be Copenhagen’s preferred hotel.
Feature image (on top): Supernova, by Søren Solkær
Stars in Copenhagen, edited by Tor Kjolberg