The fourth edition of Grand Nordic Festival welcomes audiences from Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as expats, to join in as we stage dialogues between the voice of the classical guitar and the sound of poetry readings.
This year’s theme is TEMPUS FUGIT · the fleeing of time.
We welcome the audience to become a part of direct trans-genre interactions between diverse art forms to enforce the the idea of dialogue as an instrument to seek solutions for the challenges contemporary society faces. To do so the festival has the Parisian salon as inspiration, and quotes the historical relationship between poetry reading and the sound of the lyre in antiquity
The festival is an activity arranged by OrdSelskabet · Society of the Word. The organisation will offer a wide array of cultural activities during the autumn and winter stressing on community, dialogue and humanism. You may become member of OrdSelskabet by sending an email to: info@ordselskabet.dk
PRICE 200 DKK: membership from September 2022 until December 2023 – including free events and up to 50% discount on other activities.
You may read the bylaws here.
This year’s theme is TEMPUS FUGIT · the fleeing of time – tones and words about time perception with an exploration of the musical fuga.
In times of crisis and general uncertainty, and as the hectic chronological time seems to steer human interactions, we seek to reinforce the idea of dialogue and direct human contact.
Thus, we invite the audience to a joint journey where dialogue is the epicenter of the stage performances across art forms.
The festival is staged as a series of dialogues between classical guitar and poetry readings. Each single performance is attained via a direct confluence between poet(s) and musician(s). This joint expression explores time’s fluidity, and aims at attaining an experimental trans-aesthetic study on artistic interaction.
In antiquity the strings of the lyre and poetry were inseparable. For many centuries, music was accompanied by poetry. Since then, the joint experience of these artistic expressions has been separated. The purpose with this new festival is to re-establish the connection between a string instrument and poetry reading.
Curator and festival director, Martha Elias, renders her ideas about the festival:
Dear festival guest,
Welcome to the fourth Edition of Grand Nordic Festival. We invite the audience to an experimental journey into the sound of poetry and the voice of the guitar. This year’s theme is TEMPUS FUGIT · the fleeing of time – tones and words about time.
The festival concept revolves around the idea of opening a dialogical space, whereon to reflect the spirit of time present and times gone via art, music, poetry, with reference to the Parisian salon and to the ancient relationship between the lyre/kithara and poetry. It has been a long journey since 2013, where I got the first idea to present a festival with poetry and classical music based on an interdisciplinary approach that simultaneously hits the trans-aesthetic as an axis, and where the multilingual is included as part of the concept development. These three elements – interdisciplinarity. trans-aesthetics and multilingualism – in combination – provide new possibilities for a common art expression which may expand the understanding of art across genres. This experiment is uplifted and stands by its own right and embraces the audience.
The background for this is that since my early teenage years, I’ve always read literature – but also LSP-books – and written my own multilingual poetry texts and art reviews – while listening to classical music. Therefore, it is gratifying to be able to welcome you to this fourth year of the festival. An art festival in times of crisis. For courage, support, and joint direction, I deeply thank everyone – every single one – of this year’s team on and behind stage. This cultural project is relevant, especially nowadays, when distance has been the rule and human contact has been put to the test. Therefore, we keep defying challenges, and insist on delivering a joint art expression with the audience at its core.
GRAND NORDIC FESTIVAL is the first and only in its form and expression, and each year we set out to address a relevant theme. The vision is – firstly – to persevere on the experimental, innovative and self-reflective format, which is expressed by being a place of communion for prominent talents in poetry, philosophy, as well as classical and contemporary music. Ultimately, the festival is the sheer culmination of a dream whose ultimate purpose is to strengthen, support and safeguard the role of art as a crucial part of our common storyline.
I wish you a good festival, and a poetic autumn!
Martha Elias
Art Director & Curator
Grand Nordic Festival
During the breaks – as well as every evening – after the programme ends – everyone can join the Salon Time and mingle with the the artists. It remains paramount to nurture the creation of new dialogue groups.
This is an opportunity to interact with everyone straightforwardly. Visitors can freely take the stage and present poetry, music or something inter-related. This will take place in Hellerup in late September 2022.
Please check out the programme, and contact us via mail if you wish to participate: me@grandnordicfestival.dk
The audience and participating artists have the opportunity to freely contribute to compose a festival product written in community during this year’s festival. This is done by writing 1-2 lines of verse, a word or a thought related to the theme TEMPUS FUGIT · the fleeing of time. After the festival, the joint salon poem will be edited and shared via the festival’s social media channels.
READ previous joint community poems here.
Our own Salon Academy offers the following activities:
16/9 and 17/9 from 15:00-16:30 · SkriveSalon · the time perspective with Proust, in Danish. Everyone is welcome. By NEAL ASHLEY CONRAD
16/9 from 15:00-17:00 · GUITAR MASTER CLASS by Maestro Ricardo Gallén
PRICE: DKK 500 per person per activity.
Everyone can join via our payment page or MOBILEPAY 611996
See artist page here.
If you have any questions about the program or workshops, please send an email to: info@grandnordicfestival.dk
The festival aims at nurturing a free space for art encounters between poetry and classical music, and has the audience as a central part of the art dialogues on stage.
We thank for the interest to everyone and inform that the organisation has decided to delivering any and all profits from ticket sales to Flygtningebørn.dk (organisation that provide aid to child refugees).
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Copenhagen, 25 September 2019
The festival is arranged by OrdSelskabet · THE SOCIETY OF THE WORD
Concept & Art Direction by Martha Elias
VAT. DK-41666161
UPDATED 13 September 2022.
