On Re-Dressing Remote Places: Imaginaries at the Margins

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores how place-related imaginaries are conjured at the naval base of Grønnedal located in the Arsuk fjord in Southn Greenland. Introducing the concept of re-dressing, we see how Grønnedal becomes the subject of contestation among local, national and foreign actors. As geopolitical circumstances led Denmark to reopen Grønnedal in 2017 only a year after it had been abandoned, the Danish Ministry of Defence invited partners to explore how the relatively large, but dilapidated building mass could be put to use for tourism purposes. Located in lush South Greenland, once Greenland’s prime tourism spot but today challenged by depopulation, degrowth and poor physical infrastructure, this seemed the evident choice. Tracing discussions and activities around the re-dressing of Grønnedal, the chapter shows how things, feelings and politics interfered with this ‘obvious’ idea. The story shows how Grønnedal is imagined through tensions of liminality and centrality, abandonment and potentiality and feeds into ongoing, larger discussions of the possible future(s) of Greenland as actors deliberate on how Grønnedal could become a place for tourism, but also—as seen in the emerging discussions, an engine to rebuild regional infrastructure or a camp for refugees. It is suggested that marginal imaginaries of the place as too remote, too emotional or too boring has left the idea unrealised.