On your right, look for the red-brick building with a simple rectangular front, broad window openings, and the Dansk Plakatmuseum sign marking the entrance.
This is Denmark’s only museum devoted entirely to posters... which is wonderfully specific, and also a reminder that paper can outlast speeches. Artist Peder Stougaard started it all after years of collecting posters himself and arguing, persistently, with the authorities until Aarhus finally agreed to create the museum in nineteen ninety-three, with Stougaard as its first leader. Since two thousand and six, it has belonged to Den Gamle By, and this purpose-built exhibition building opened on the first of November, two thousand and nine.
Inside and in storage, the museum holds nearly four hundred thousand posters from around the world: political, commercial, and educational, by famous names like Henry Heerup, Aage Sikker Hansen, and Bjørn Wiinblad, as well as artists history forgot. Most stay in storage, so the museum rotates a handful of special exhibitions each year. Take a quick look at the exterior on your screen if you like.
Posters are fleeting by design, but this place treats them like witnesses. If you want to return later, it opens daily from ten A-M to four P-M; when you’re ready, continue to the next stop.
