Danish artists to decorate jail

Public funds must be used to decorate buildings

Danish prison authorities have decided to cheer up inmates by having a new prison decorated by five of the country's finest contemporary artists.

The 700,000 euro (£470,000) project will be completed by summer 2006, when the groundbreaking jail is due to open.

"We want to give employees and inmates a true experience," prison inspector Joergen Bang said.

Under Danish law, 1.2% of public building expenses must be used for the artistic decoration of new buildings.

But roughly one-third of the sum comes from the National Art Fund, which has also played a key role in choosing the artists.

Kirsten Ortwed, Christian Lemmerz, Oeivind Nygaard, Hanne Varming and Peter Hentze, whose works can be admired in museums in Denmark and abroad, are already at work.

Their effort will include murals in common areas and courtyards, sculptures and an altarpiece for the chapel.

"The project is just at its initial stage, but I think it is very likely that the artists will come and give lectures about their works to the detainees," Gitte Framstrup, building division consultant with the Danish Prison and Probation Services, told BBC News Online.

Too expensive?

German-born Lemmerz, whose sculptures include "High noon", depicting the severed legs of a woman, is working on a sculpture for the high security row.

He said the inmates would probably be the "most faithful public" of his whole career.

"First they are jailed, and then forced to look at modern art. Poor them!", he joked.

On a more serious note, he added that while he did not believe in the educational function of art, he thought it could widen people's horizons.

But the rightwing Danish People's Party was critical of the initiative.

"Of course there should be some decoration in a jail, but there are loads of amateur artists who can produce extremely beautiful things," said Poul Noedgaard, a member of the parliamentary art committee.

"There is no reason to use such an enormous amount of money on it."