Clinton Eastwood

Songs of the Wanderers. There was an elaborate film festival on at the Danish Film House. A major exhibition of 50 years of Danish ceramics at the Industrial Arts Museum showcased the works of, besides others, Gertrude Vaseguard. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek had just opened a new 'glass wing' to house their fabled collection of Impressionists like Courbet, Sisley, Pissaro, 12 rare Gauguin ceramics and 30 original bronzes by Rodin. A first-of-its kind exhibition of 31 young Chinese painters, an acclaimed exhibition of Yoko Ono's 'Conceptual Photography', and the World Deaf Games '97—all this was happening.

But the only thing the Danes were talking about was the visit of US President Bill Clinton the week before, the first ever by a serving US president to Denmark. The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen had publicly displayed the bicycle he intended to gift Clinton, titled 'city bike one' and appropriately painted in presidential livery, complete with the US presidential seal. However, not everyone was fawning. Anti-nuclear groups were ready with cartoon images of Clinton as a sneering cowboy with nuke weapons in his holster, the caption reading 'Clinton Eastwood'.