The outdoor installation, created specifically for Roskilde city center, consists of flag garlands hanging on wires above the pedestrian streets, and flags on 15 flagpoles in the central square near the cathedral. The flags are designed in a scale of dark and light beige and brownish tones, reminiscent of earth or skin colors.
The garlands in the pedestrian street present a dense pattern formed by combining different flag designs. One can discern the familiar flag divisions: three vertical fields, three horizontal fields, the cross, the St. Andrew's cross, and the centered circle. These shapes are broken and merged, creating a new complex geometry, and the flags appear in various color combinations.
The flags are arranged in three clusters of five poles spread across the square. These flags are monochromatic, featuring the same 15 shades found in each of the wire flags. In the square, there is a sense of lightness and openness in the expression of the flags, contrasting with the more compact flags fluttering above the pedestrian street.
The title Flags for Common Grounds plays on the duality of the English phrase "common ground": shared understandings or agreements – and a reference to the literal earth, the solid ground we stand on together. The use of the plural form in the title suggests that it does not refer to a single universal agreement, but rather to a world where there is room for multiple perspectives and understandings, without the need for division.
The installation adds an atmosphere of celebration and festivity to the pedestrian street and the square. However, it is not the usual national flag waving in the wind, pointing to a country and its people. These flags no longer refer to a community defined by a specific territorial and state affiliation but can instead be seen as new flags of diversity, where everyone is included and welcome. The artwork represents a tribute to the sense of belonging to one another across national borders and connectedness to the planet we inhabit.

Photo: Joakim Züger.