DENMARK IN THE CASTLE 2002
The Danish Cultural Institute in cooperation with the Cultural Center ZAMEK invited for the third edition of the series of presentations of the Danish culture Denmark in the Castle. This year's presentation comprised 3 exhibitions, a retrospective of films by the well-known Danish instructor Bille August and a literary salon with the poet Morten Söndergaard.
The purpose of the project was to present the interesting output of Poland's overseas neighbour and to attract attention to the potential of this not-fully-realized Baltic Neighbourhood. The city of the event, Poznan, suits the purpose perfectly due to the fact that several institutions linked to Denmark, as eg. the organizer itself, the Scandinavian Department of A.Mickiewicz University as well as many Danish companies, have their seat here.
Following events were presented:
Exhibition of Danish crafts UNIKA 23.11-10.12.2002 The Cultural Center ZAMEK, The Marble Hall.
The exhibition UNIKA showed the latest tendencies in crafts in Denmark. It consisted of works made by 50 artists in glass, ceramics, textile as well as jewellery, furniture and steel pottery. The main aim of the presentation was to raise a discussion on the situation of crafts towards new challenges. The technological development and usage of computer in the process of creation is the reason of a new revolution in crafts in the sense that news are dangerous to crafts and give more space for industrial design. The exhibition UNIKA showed how the young generation of Danish artists referred to the new challenges and the local tradition. The works presented not only Danish, but also international tendencies in this field. (See Events:UNIKA - exhibition on Danish handicraft)
Exhibition of Danish Comics 23.11-10.12.2002 The Cultural Center ZAMEK, The Great Hall.
The Danish comics have a long, almost 100 years' old tradition. The pioneer in this field was Storm P. (1882-1949), drawer, whose satirical drawings are recognized by every Dane. Comics in Denmark had their reneissance in the 80's and 90's of the 20th century, which led to the establishment of the Danish Museum of Comics in Kalundborg in 1993 as well as a special fund supporting the Danish comics of highest artistic quality. The exhibition in ZAMEK presented works by well-known Danish artists from Studio Gimle: Sussi Bech, Ingo Milton, Niels Roland, Peter Snejbjerg, Palle Schmidt, Olle Comoll Christensen, Michael Jensen and Frank Madsen.
Exhibition Renovation of the Royal Danish Gardens 23.11-10.12.2002 The Cultural Center ZAMEK, The Great Hall.
It took 23 years to work on the project Normandsdalen. The project was based on renovation, sculpturing and gardening of the Royal Gardens at Fredensborg Palace near Copenhagen. The main aim was to recover the glamour of the baroque sculptures, a Danish national treasure and source of historical knowledge. In 10 years The Renovation Workshops from Poznan (Pracownie Konserwacji Zabytkow in Poznan Sp. z o.o.) took part in the project's fulfillment - 41 copies of sculptures were made here. On 9th September 2002 Margrethe II, the Queen of Denmark, made the grand opening of the Nordmandsdalen park complex. During the project Denmark in the Castle 2002, a short history of Nordmandsdalen as well as the renovation process were presented. The Baroque park complex Nordmandsdalen was established in the second part of 18th century from Frederik V, the King of Denmark's initiative. The designers made the park as an amphitheatre with three terraces, on which 70 sandstone figures of Norwegian and Faroe peasants, fishermen etc. were situated. More than 200 years of Normandsdalen left a visible trace as far as their technical condition is concerned. From that reason a decision to reconstruct all the figures and to recover the original form of the whole complex was taken.
Bille August's film retrospective 02-08.12. The Cultural Center Zamek.
Bille August (b.1948), a TV and film director, since the end of 80's has been giving the Danish film an international profile. In his films Bille August takes up the subject of relations between the world of children and that of adults as well as the situation of a person in a community. There, he presents poetical abilities and wide psychological knowledge; he is fascinated with family relations and themes like love and forgivness. Using experiences from his own childhood he tries to show its great influence on man's adult life. Bille August is the author of following films: Honey Moon (1978), Zappa (1983), Twist and Shout (1984), A World of Buster (1984). Further productions - Pelle the Conqueror (1987), Good Intentions (1991) and Jerusalem (1996) form a kind of a Scandinavian trilogy. Films like The House of Spirits (1993), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997) and The Miserable (1998) are a return to international production. During the retrospective, prepared in cooperation with the Danish Film Institute, following films were presented: Honey Moon (1978), Zappa (1983), A World of Buster (1984), Twist and Shout (1984), Pelle The Conqueror.
Meeting with poet Morten Soendergaard 5.12 The Danish Cultural Institute (The Cultural Center Zamek).
Is the quantity of translated books a consequence of the quality of cultural relations between the countries? Surely, it raises the quality of the relations. In the last ten years the difficult condition of the Polish publishing and book market have stopped the influx of the Danish literature. Since Nicolai Climius' journey.. by the great Danish dramaturgist Ludvig Holberg was published in 1819 in Lublin, almost 200 other titles appeared on the Polish market. Apart from the big quantity of H.Ch. Andersen's fairy-tales, most of the books appeared in two waves: At the beginning of the 20th century and in the 60's and 70's of the 20th century, when The Series of Works by Scandinavian Writers was published by Wydawnictwo Poznanskie. The today's Danish belles-lettres is associated in Poland with the name of Karen Blixen, however more and more Danish children's books also are being published. Though, Danish poetry still remains almost unknown. This will in a certain degree be made up for by a soon published in Lodz volume of poetry by Morten Sondergaard. Morten Söndergaard, a poet and translator, has since his debut in 1992 published 4 volumes of poetry and a volume of poetic prose. He is the editor of the literary magazine Hvedekorn.