Bongorama Copenhagen City Guide

Copenhagen: Going green

2007-12-03T20:00:00.000+01:00

Denmark's capital has a more vibrant, raffish air than is usually associated with Scandinavian cities. It offer visitors both truly world-class museums and a thriving café, bar and restaurant culture.

Copenhagen is ideal for exploring on foot and on bicycle and for winding down in a pleasant bar along the historic quaysides that have played a key role in the rejuvenation of the city. It's a contrary place: visitors will discover grand villas, canals, townhouses and crumbling piles, open spaces and narrow, bustling streets.

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Hotel D’Angleterre – 250 years of hospitality

2007-09-13T09:43:00.000+02:00

Prologue
Ever since Bishop Absalon founded his castle by the harbour in 1167, which was since named Copenhagen, the city has been pivotal in the making of history. It is in the heart of this metropolis that you find one of the world’s oldest hotels, Hotel D’Angleterre, which has survived wars and times of turmoil, thriving not only as a choice place of gathering for Copenhageners but featuring as one of the finest hotels in Scandinavia.

The hotel neighbours the Renaissance district of Christian IV with its many palaces as well as the 18th century residential homes of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie erected under the rule of Frederik V. The 19th century saw the enlargement of the city beyond the city ramparts, yet Copenhagen still seems small and well balanced.

Amidst its historical setting, the 250-year Hotel D’Angleterre with its remarkably rich history is older than many states and nations. Today the hotel is more magnificent than ever and features as a five-star deluxe hotel of Victorian style with 123 individually decorated rooms.

The beginning
Hotel D’Angleterre was not only founded on masonry, mortar, and oak piles. It is the result of the love and dreams of two young people.

In the mid 18th century, a young hairdresser called Jean Marchal came to Copenhagen with a travelling theatre troupe. He was so enchanted by the town that after his performances he decided to settle here. Jean Marchal became the personal valet to one of the most illustrious libertines at the time, Count Conrad Danneskiold Laurvig. As a valet he was naturally enrolled in the household of the Royal Court, where he met Maria Coppy, the daughter of the Royal Chef. Jean Marchal fell in love with this young girl, who was a veritable master chef. Her talents in the kitchen were well reputed, and he was skilled in the fine art of waiting on nobility. This is where the story of Hotel D’Angleterre begins.

In the spring of 1755, Mr and Mrs Marchal set up a business by the city lakes where they opened the restaurant called *The Strong Man’s Garden*. The following autumn they moved to Vingårdsstræde near Kongens Nytorv square, close to the metro entrance of the Magasin
du Nord department store. This was where Hotel D’Angleterre was founded, although 30 years were to pass before this name was adopted.

In 1787, the restaurant was sold to the restaurateur Gottfried Rau, who was a talented and visionary man. He was also the host of *The English Club* in Copenhagen and the rules of the club were soon applied to his new establishment. Following the fashion of the day, he changed the name to the French-spoken, Hotel D’Angleterre.

In 1795, the hotel burnt to the ground. Gottfried Rau considered rebuilding it to be too costly, so instead he purchased Grams Gård, the site where Hotel D’Angleterre stands today, just a few metres from the ruins of the original hotel.

During the following years, Hotel D’Angleterre changed hands a couple of times, but the outer appearance remained the same. On the 11th of February 1840, the Danish composer H.C. Lumbye held his debut concert à la Strauss at the hotel, which now became the new concert venue in the city. For years, Hotel D’Angleterre was synonymous with musical entertainment, but when purpose-built concert halls were established, the hotel was no longer the principal concert venue in Copenhagen and instead became the setting for grand, high-society social functions.

The Expansion

Det Kjøbenhavnske Byggeselskab, a construction company headed by the merchant tycoon, C. F. Tietgen, took over the property in 1872 and in doing so proposed bringing Hotel D’Angleterre up to the standard of the most exclusive luxury hotels in Europe.

The new owners conducted an extensive enlargement and refurbishment of Hotel D’Angleterre. Ten metres were added to the main building, and a new wing was constructed along Hovedvagtsgade. In addition, a new two-storey wing was constructed to establish the courtyard where The Palm Court is today. The wing housed what was called The White Hall, which was later renamed The Louis XVI Hall. The hotel was refurnished and modernised to the highest standards. The most successful restaurant owner in Copenhagen, Alexander Vincent, ran this ‘new’ hotel. The chefs, Maître d’Hôtel, and other members of staff were the best in the city. As a novelty in Copenhagen they installed a stove able to keep 1000 plates heated, and they added a wine cellar in the grand French style.

Mr and Mrs Vincent hosted banquets at the hotel’s central restaurant ‘Table d’Hôte Salon’ on a daily basis, and they both dined at the large main table. It wasn’t like being a hotel guest, but more like having the honour of being invited to a distinguished home. Menus were DKK 3 apiece and consisted of soup, fish, a vegetable dish, steak and desert. A small orchestra would entertain the guests during dinner, adding to the friendly atmosphere.

The opening of a new café on the corner where Restaurant D’Angleterre is located today was the most significant change made during the late19th century. A café on the corner of Hovedvagtsgade had long been a part of the establishment, but the management realised that a café on the busy opposite corner would draw a larger crowd. Contrary to the fashion of the time, the café interior was kept in light hues and adorned with an abundance of gold. The café took its name from an American alcohol abuse treatment called The Golden Cure. The café
instantly became a great success, and scuffles over the prime location at the corner window were recurrent daily events.

The area around The Golden Cure was the heart of the city. The streets were an inviting scene of horse-drawn carriages, crinolines, and top hats. There were cafés just as famous in other cities, but none with such an open location on the most popular square in town and with such spectacle surrounding it. In 1915, shortly after the beginning of World War I, the heyday of The Golden Cure came to an abrupt end when the hotel was partially razed by fire.

When Hotel D’Angleterre was rebuilt in its current form, an additional storey was constructed. An impressing glass roof covered the courtyard, and in keeping with international fashion, an elegant palm court was created with palm trees and marble statues. These stylish surroundings were an instant success with the Copenhagen bourgeoisie, who would enjoy afternoon tea dances to music conducted by the best orchestras of the day.

The Years Of war

Naturally, the high spirits at Hotel D’Angleterre were restrained by World War I. Not only did Copenhagen society have to observe new restricted opening hours, the hotel itself was flooded with Russian refugees. At first, the restaurant and *The Palm Court* teemed with life, but when their roubles ran out the samovars would brew in the rooms instead. In the end, the refugees had to move out of their new stately home and into the town.

The Great Depression followed in the wake of World War I. As a luxury hotel, Hotel D’Angleterre was especially vulnerable. No sooner had Hotel D’Angleterre been brought back to former glory before the world once again was plunged into war. The 9th of April 1940 – the day German forces occupied Denmark – also marked the beginning of a new and dismal period for the hotel. The German forces enlisted Hotel D’Angleterre as their Copenhagen headquarters; German officers took over the hotel, and uniformed guards were posted at the entrance.

Field Marshal Rommel stayed at Hotel D’Angleterre during his visit to Copenhagen. As the story goes, a small group of onlookers were still to be found in front of the hotel long after Rommel had departed. This bewildered the soldiers, and one of them sought to inform the onlookers in broken Danish that Rommel had left, but the crowd answered:
‘But we’re not waiting for Rommel; we’re waiting for Montgomery. He’s always hard on his heels, isn’t he?’
Even before World War II, ambitious plans for major refurbishment of the hotel had been put forward by the board of Hotel D’Angleterre. However, these plans were shelved when war broke out.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

At the end of the war, Hotel D’Angleterre stood at a crossroad. Five years of occupation had left its conspicuous mark on the hotel, and the building was in need of extensive and costly refurbishment. This investment had to be weighed against the insecurity that prevailed throughout post-war society.

The board finally gave the go-ahead for major refurbishment in November 1945. This had been a difficult decision to make, but it reflected unwavering optimism, a feeling of humble respect and a sense of responsibility towards the almost 200 years of proud tradition at Hotel D’Angleterre. Quite simply, no one could imagine Copenhagen without Hotel D’Angleterre.

The refurbishment of the old building was considerably more expensive and time-consuming than imagined. 10 years later, when the hotel celebrated its bicentennial in 1955, the banquet facilities were still in dire need of repair. The decades that followed were a time of transition for the hotel, and the hotel changed owners several times.

The New Hotel D’Angleterre

The recession during the late 1980s and early 1990s was a blow to society as a whole, but no sector was harder hit than the hospitality industry. Hotel D'Angleterre only survived by the skin of its teeth and had fallen into disrepair when the hotel group purchased Hotel D’Angleterre in 1993 and presented a straightforward and ambitious plan that reflected the proud traditions of Hotel D’Angleterre. The White Lady was once again to present herself as one of the most prestigious and exclusive in the world.

One of the first initiatives was to restore the magnificent Kongens Nytorv façade to former glory, and the Christmas of 1995 marked the beginning of an entirely new tradition at Hotel D’Angleterre. Thousands of seasonal lights and ornamental fir marked Copenhagen’s most magnificent Christmas decoration. Since then, new seasonal displays have delighted thousands of hotel guests and Copenhageners alike, who all come to Kongens Nytorv to delight in the décor.

The celebrated Danish artist Bjørn Wiinblad was commissioned to design the interior of the restaurant that carried his name until spring 2005. The entire complex of rooms and suites has undergone meticulous restoration and the exquisite Spa and Fitness Centre was opened in February 1996. It features one of Scandinavia’s largest hotel swimming pools, a Jacuzzi, a Turkish bath, and a sauna in addition to state of the art fitness equipment.

In the autumn of 2001, the hotel group re-inaugurated the classic Palm Court with its rich tradition. Europe’s largest glass mosaic ceiling had just been fitted above the largest banquet hall at Hotel D'Angleterre, adding to the magnificent ambience. The mosaic, measuring an impressing 225 sq. metres and weighing more than 30 tons, is created by the famous Italian glass artist Poli, who has formerly undertaken restoration work at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

In the spring of 2005, it was time for change and innovation for the restaurant at Hotel D’Angleterre. A new exclusive concept featuring Italian gold lamps, walls covered with gold foil and hand-made mosaic tables was chosen to replace Bjørn Wiinblad’s blue universe. However, the extensive refurbishment of Hotel D’Angleterre doesn’t stop here – it’s a continuous process. Recent changes include new silk wallpaper in all hotel corridors and a complete refurbishment of the hotel’s 4th floor.

The committed and meticulous care for Hotel D’Angleterre has produced results. In 2006 Hotel D’Angleterre was elected Denmark’s principal hotel at the World Travel Awards for the 3rd time, and the same year the hotel was awarded 5 stars by the famous Michelin Guide. Hotel D’Angleterre has been reinstated as one of the most magnificent hotels in the world thanks to the hotel group’s vision and substantial investment. The story of Hotel D’Angleterre was founded on loving dedication and a sense of hospitality and this story lives on in the third illustrious century of Hotel D’Angleterre.

Hotel D’Angleterre belongs to Remmen Hotels, which apart from Hotel D’Angleterre, also counts the four-star Hotel Kong Frederik and the life style hotel FRONT, as well as Restaurant Copenhagen Corner on the Town Hall Square.

For further information visit: www.remmen.dk and www.dangleterre.com

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Richard Avedon @ Louisiana

2007-08-27T11:05:00.000+02:00

Richard Avedon, Photographs 1946-2004

24. august 2007 to 13. january 2008

Richard Avedon

For more than fifty years Richard Avedon was one of the biggest names in the fashion industry with a star status that he maintained throughout all those years, and he was the first to break down the barrier between so-called serious and non-serious photography. He emerged as early as the 1950s as the world’s leading fashion photographer, and was on the staff of the American magazine Harper’s Bazaar, later on Vogue, ending in 1992 as the weekly The New Yorker’s first permanent staff photographer.

Richard Avedon was awarded the Swedish Hasselblad Prize for photography in 1991.

THE EXHIBITION

Anyone who was anyone over the last fifty years has been modelling for Avedon. The exhibition shows portraits of Truman Capote, Charles Chaplin, Henry Kissinger, Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen, The Beatles, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Samuel Beckett and many more. Not only the glamour aesthetics of fashion but the fascination of the expressive human face and the intencity of the look inspires Avedon.

The exhibition features more than 200 photographs, demonstrating the scope of Avedon's production, from the glamorous world of fashion through the more psychologial portraits to reportage-oriented shots. It draws selectively on picture series where Avedon concentrated on a particular range of themes, subjects or events – from travel pictures to almost registrative pictures of his dying father. Photographs from the New York Life reportage series from 1949 – a work commissioned by Life magazine, which Avedon at the time ended up not submitting to the magazine, and from which he first showed selections forty years later in his own book “An Autobiography“ - can be seen in the exhibition.

Innovator of modern portrait photography

Along with Irving Penn, Avedon transformed portrait photography in the twentieth century. Where one usually has a fixed image of a well known person, Avelon shatters the scrapbook icon with his photographs and shows a portrait that leaves you with food for thought. Placing the model in front of a simple white background, face directly towards he camera, Avedon strips the model from his natural invironment. All there is left is a human being staring back at the beholder.

Retrospective

The exhibition is retrospective and shows Avedons work chronological from pictures taken in 1946, when Avedon went to Sicilly and Rome after World War II, and the last photograph in the exhibition is of the singer Björk, taken in 2004 less than four months before Avedon's sudden death.

The exhibition at Louisiana is the first presentation of Avedon’s pictures in Denmark. This can be done because Louisiana contacted Richard Avedon and The Avedon Foundation as early as 2003 about a future exhibition. In 2004 Richard Avedon died, and now The Avedon Foundation is honouring the agreement with Louisiana on an exhibition which Avedon himself verbally approved. This makes Louisiana the first museum to realize a retrospective exhibition of the photographer’s work since his death, providing a unique opportunity to make the acquaintance of an intense life’s work.

Curator

The exhibition has been concieved and organized by curator Helle Crenzien, Louisiana, in collaboration with The Avedon Foundation.

The exhibition on world tour

After being shown at Louisiana the exhibition will be sent on a world tour to FORMA in Milan, Jeu de paume in Paris, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Foam Photographiemuseum in Amsterdam and finally to SFMOMA in San Francisco.

Special Catalogue

For the exhibition Louisiana is publishing a large special catalogue with contributions by among others Judith Thurman, the English writer Geoff Dyer, Avedon's gallerist Jeffrey Fraenkel and the critics Christoph Ribbat (Germany) and Rune Gade (Denmark).

The catalogue features about 130 of the photos in the exhibition reproduced in tritone with lacquer. All repro work has been done by the world-famous lithographer Robert Hennessey, and the book has been designed by Michael Jensen.

The book will be published in English, French, German and Italian. The upcoming issue of Louisiana Magasin (no. 26) further features an article (in Danish) by curator Helle Crenzien.

Sponsors

OAK FOUNDATION Denmark supports the exhibition.
DONG Energy is the main sponsor of Louisiana’s exhibitions.
Realdania is the sponsor of Louisiana’s architecture exhibitions.
Nykredit is the sponsor of LOUISIANA CONTEMPORARY.

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Black Horses in a Green Park

2007-08-03T15:10:00.000+02:00

4-5 August 2007 Copenhagen hosts the sevenths Grand Prix for historic racing cars. The track - prolonged by one kilometre - is located in one of the city’s largest and most popular parks. Here the 60 years’ anniversary of Maranello’s prancing horses are celebrated to the full

- The City of Copenhagen not only has approved the prolongation of the circuit with a kilometre but we have also arranged with Ferrari Import Denmark A/S and Ferrari Owners Clubs in Northern Europe that we will celebrate Ferrari’s passionate history and 60 years’ birthday with a dynamic display of potent Ferraris through six decades.

CEO Johnny Laursen of Ferrari Denmark:

- A special parking lot for Ferrari owners bringing their own Ferraris to the race will be set up next to Ferrari Denmark’s historic display and the Ferrari motorhomes where we will also feature Ferrari’s latest road-going super cars and the Ferrari Scandinavia Challenge stables.

Mayor Klaus Bondam greets the new ambitions welcome:

- The Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix has become a recurring event which high lights the entrepreneurial and trendsetting spirit of the city and which falls in line with the other international initiatives Copenhagen is becoming world famous for.

- Motor sport is one of the sports where some great Danes are setting the pace internationally, says Claus Frausing of the Historic Automobile Sports Association, Tom Kristensen and Jan Magnussen being two of them. Therefore it is also extremely important for us that we can muster one the most iconic motor sports marques ever to participate with such vigourness in a show which truly also appeals to an international audience.

The organizers expect more than 200 participants with at least as many cars to the 2007 Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix. For spectators arriving to the track in a classic car (up to 1970) a special Classic Car Parking will be set up adjacent to one of the entrances.

The Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix is a non profit event. Profits will be used for talent development in Danish motor sport.

Approximately 250 volunteers work enthusiastically without pay to make the race come through. In the last week before the race many of them work 24 hours schedules to build the track and facilities.

The track is situated in the middle of Copenhagen in one of the city’s largest parks only 1.5 kilometres from the medieval city centre with abundance of hotels, restaurants and shopping.
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On the Edge of Copenhagen, a Place to Unwind

2007-07-28T19:42:00.000+02:00

NYTIMES.COM: ARE you nuts?” The Royal Shooting Club's ancient caretaker was furious with me. Wandering the club's secluded public gardens above the beach three miles north of Copenhagen, I had stumbled onto a well-manicured range whose target was hidden in a hedge some 200 feet from a high-powered rifle mounted in the club's dining veranda. “You see?” the caretaker said, cooling off and taking me inside to show me the walls filled with portraits of Danish nobles and members' coats of arms. “This is an old place with fine traditions. All the people wandering through here could end things in a minute.”

I should have been dumbfounded to see such an incongruous sight in the crowded suburbs of liberal Copenhagen, but this was, after all, the Whiskey Belt, where the rules of Denmark's traditional egalitarianism don't always apply.

Whiskey Belt is the nickname for the narrow strip of beaches, forests, pleasure gardens and villas that dot the 25 miles of coastline from Copenhagen's northern reaches to Hamlet's castle of Kronborg in Elsinore. Some of Denmark's most prominent citizens live here, facing the country's traditional enemy, the Swedes, on the other side of the narrow Oresund strait, and a steady onslaught of Copenhageners coming up here to unwind.

“ ‘Whiskey Belt' is sort of a bad name for the place, but it's popular,” said Joachim Knop, a Danish opera star who makes his home along the coast. “The idea is that people in Copenhagen drink beer, while life on the north side is so good, we all drink whiskey.”

Perhaps the ultimate compliment to this area is the name of a coming prime-time TV melodrama about the travails of a wealthy Whiskey Belt family: “2900 Happiness”— 2900 being the principal postal code for the Whiskey Belt. “For Danes 2900 is sort of like Beverly Hills 90210,” said Sofie Lassen-Kahlke, who stars in the show and who herself grew up here. “It's where Denmark's most expensive homes and highest salaries are to be found. There's a mystique to the place.”

A single artery, Strandvejen, curves through the area like a Danish version of the Pacific Coast Highway. During the weekends and evenings Strandvejen's bike paths are jammed with inline skaters and bikers heading up to the beaches, getting exercise or simply checking out the scene. Copenhagen's mass transit system, the S-train, also has a “Coastal Line” for commuters, explorers and urban invaders.

The most glamorous part of the coast is six miles north of Copenhagen's center, when you round the bend at Klampenborg and see the bay dotted with Victorian villas and low modern apartment buildings whose white facades and curving forms reflect the seascape. Most striking of all is a formidable mansion with a green-topped cupola hovering on a low hill above the bay. This is Hvidore, where the Danish-born Empress Dagmar of Russia, whose son Czar Nicholas II was murdered after the Russian Revolution, fled with her jewelry and her Cossack guards. From her widow's walk she could gaze across the sound toward Russia, somewhere beyond the Swedish coast. Her gaze is now mirrored by a statue of Knud Rasmussen, the Danish polar explorer, which permanently stares at Sweden from his granite beachside pedestal beneath the mansion.

There's a lot to stare at here. This stretch of road fronts Bellevue Beach, whose summer inhabitants tend to be as sexy, though more blond, than those at Copacabana. And practically every 20th-century structure you see here was designed by Arne Jacobsen, whose organic buildings and furnishings defined Danish Modern for the rest of the world. Jacobsen lived and worked in the Whiskey Belt for most of his career. He even designed the funky white-tiled gas station — now an ice cream parlor — with its George Jetson-ish toadstool awning in front of Skovshoved harbor.

But for me the coolest of Jacobsen's designs is Bellevue Beach itself, with its cartoonish blue-striped lifeguard towers and white geometric kiosks, which, when they were built in 1932, must have seemed half a century before their time.

Time travel does seem possible in the Deer Park, behind the beach. This is probably Denmark's most popular and certainly most populist green spot despite having been a royal hunting ground for three and a half centuries. Cross under the royal crest on the red wooden gate next to Klampenborg Station and enter into an ancient forest worthy of Hansel and Gretel. Some 2,000 deer stride freely around this fenced-in hilly terrain more than three times the size of Central Park, amid massive trees that make other forests seem pygmy-like.

“The trees here are unusually tall because after Denmark lost its navy to the British in the early 1800s, they decided to plant lots of oak and beech trees here for use in building future ships,” said Ingvar Sahlberg, who manages Pieter Lieps Hus restaurant, a popular excursion point for people wandering the forest. “They just never got around to chopping them down.”

Walking past Lieps at night takes you to a surreal sight: Half a mile into the dark woods you come upon a colored light bulb riot of beer gardens, rides, theaters and even a wooden roller coaster. This is Bakken, which bills itself as the world's oldest amusement park. Started in the early 18th century when jugglers, troubadours, clowns and other entertainers began setting up their tents around a holy spring, Bakken remains a boisterous place where Copenhageners flock to eat greasy food, take thrill rides, drink lots of beer and watch risqué cabarets. Bakken's setting in these pricey bucolic surroundings would be a little like bringing Coney Island to Montauk.

“Bakken is bawdier, more folksy, cornier and a lot older than Tivoli,” said Anne Kjeldsen, referring to Copenhagen's famous amusement park. Ms. Kjeldsen owns the Skovly, a colorful restaurant and beer garden in Bakken; keeping with tradition, she and the park's other business owners are still called “tent holders.” “Bakken's got more soul,” she said.

The most famous meal in Bakken is fire, eaten several times a day in front of a little green house inhabited by the park's mascot clown, Pjerrot. Beloved by several generations of Danes, Pjerrot is a character out of Italian comic opera who has been entertaining Bakken's visitors since 1800. He is essentially a set of oversized red lips cracking jokes from a sea of white makeup and clothing. Tivoli also adopted Pjerrot as a mascot, but the difference between the two says it all: Bakken's Pjerrot sings, does tricks and, yes, eats lots of fire; Tivoli's Pjerrot performs in a ballet.

If one seeks deeper refinements, drive 10 minutes north to Louisiana (Gammel Strandvej 13, Humlebaek; 45-4919-0719; www.louisiana.dk; entry 80 kroner, or $14.50 at 5.5 kroner to the dollar), one of Europe's most prominent modern-art museums. It was named, according to legend, by a former owner of the museum's grounds who had three wives named Louise. Few places better epitomize the Whiskey Belt's unique blend of populism and elitism. Part modern museum and part leisure park, Louisiana is a series of pavilions linked by glass walkways along a fantastic garden overlooking the Oresund. When I was there in early June, there was a provocative multimedia exhibit on modern Chinese art alongside the museum's permanent “Best of the 20th Century” collection. But the star of Louisiana is the amazing outdoor surroundings, and most visitors were sunbathing in the seaside garden while their kids tottered about the lawn among the Giacomettis and Calders.

Just down Strandvejen, in Rungsted, lies the creation of another artist. Like Empress Dagmar, Karen Blixen returned to the Whiskey Coast as an exile in her own land. In 1931, divorced from her husband, rejected by her lover, broke and humiliated by the failure of her coffee plantation in Kenya, Blixen moved back with her mother at Rungstedlund to do the only thing that was left for her to do: write. Here on her father's old slanted desk is where she wrote “Out of Africa,” “Babette's Feast” and most of the other tales that would put her on the world literary stage under her pen name, Isak Dinesen. Rungstedlund is now a museum (Rungsted Strandvej 111; 45-4557-1057; www.isak-dinesen.dk; entry 45 kroner), and its densely planted park provides a captivating glimpse at the other talents Blixen cultivated, literally.

Wandering around the park's 40 acres of groves and perennial-filled gardens is like taking a botanical tour of Denmark. Blixen grew herbs, flowers and shrubs from all over the Danish isles here. Ever true to her aristocratic aspirations, she had trees from Denmark's major estates replanted throughout the grounds. But, like a true citizen of the Whiskey Belt, she gave her blue-blooded ideals a populist slant. Four years before she died in 1962, she converted the estate into a bird sanctuary after encouraging the Danish public to donate one krone each to the cause. Some 80,000 Danes complied, and now the park is a popular walking and picnicking area. Blixen herself is buried beneath a giant beech tree at the northern end of the grounds.

From this spot, perched between the forest and the sea, the sight of a rainbow of wildflowers mingles with birdsong. Contemplating this perfect slice of nature at the edge of Copenhagen, a visitor can easily see how Blixen could have written “Out of Africa” here. It's also easy to see why she never went back.

VISITOR INFORMATION

HOW TO GET THERE

Scandinavian Airlines, United and Continental offer flights from Newark Airport to Copenhagen. An Internet search for August flights found S.A.S. round-trip fares starting at $627.

The A, E, F and C lines on the S-Train — Copenhagen's efficient mass-transit system — run along the northern coast (110 Danish kroner, or $20 at 5.5 kroner to the dollar, for a 24-hour ticket). Bakken, Dyrehavsbakken and Bellevue Beach are all gathered around Klampenborg station. The Karen Blixen Museum is a 15-minute walk from Rung-sted station, and the Louisiana museum is a 10-minute walk from Humlebaek station.

Bikes are an excellent way of getting around. There are paved paths along Strandvejen, and bikes can be taken on and off the S-trains (10 kroner extra). Rentals can be had at two central city Rent a Bike locations through www.rentabike.dk; (45) 3333-8613. A bike is 75 kroner a day, with a 500 kroner deposit.

WHERE TO EAT

Strandmoeller Kroen, built on the site of a 500-year-old paper mill, is a favorite with city folk looking for a quaint taste of country. A lunch plate with local specialties like pickled herring, sautéed flounder and Danish cheese is 158 kroner. Strandvejen 808; (45) 3963-0104; www.strandmoellekroen.dk.

Peter Lieps Hus, a straw-roofed former gamekeeper's cottage in the Deer Park next to Bakken amusement park, serves Danish classics like biksemad, a stew with potatoes, pork, onions and egg (116 kroner). Dyrehaven 8; (45) 3964-0786; www.peterliep.dk.

Restaurant Jacobsen, a chic restaurant next to Bellevue Beach, is a tribute to all things Arne Jacobsen from the building itself to the furniture, framed blueprints and even the cutlery. A three-course tasting menu with wine is 565 kroner. Strandvejen 449; (45) 3963-4322; www.restaurantjacobsen.dk.

WHERE TO STAY

Skodsborg Kurhotel, a former royal residence about 10 minutes' walk to the Deer Park and the sea, is now a hotel and a popular spa for well-heeled locals; 1,600 kroner for two, breakfast included. Skodsborg Strandvejen 139; (45) 4558-5800; www.skodsborg.dk.

Skovshoved Hotel is a romantic inn with an excellent restaurant; 1,400 kroner for a double room. Strandvejen 267; (45) 3964-0028; www.skovshovedhotel.dk.

***

Jes Brinch @ V1 Gallery, Copenhagen

2007-07-27T14:18:00.000+02:00

V1 Gallery presents:
The Perversions of Mechanical Normality

An exhibition by:
Jes Brinch
Opening day: August 10, 2007
Opening period: August 10, 2007 - September 2, 2007

V1 Galllery proudly presents The Perversions of Mechanical Normality, Jes Brinch’s first solo show at V1.

On August 10th the notoric outsider Jes Brinch lands in V1 Gallery with a comprehensive solo exhibition entitled The Perversions of Mechanical Normality. The exhibition, questioning the abiding norms of society, is a distillation of the artistic experiences Jes Brinch has made throughout his career. At the same time The Perversions of Mechanical Normality bears the stamp of Jes Brinch’s life in both Vietnam and Denmark.

The Perversions of Mechanical Normality is a humdrum of materials and themes joined together by a red thread of thoughts on – and critique of – modern life. The monumental and majestic marble of the antique style intertwines with the concrete of modernity, colourful tapestries of silk and nylon, see-through sound installations and paintings while existentialist contemplations merge with (gallows) humoristic reflections on absurd everyday situations.

In The Perversions of Mechanical Normality the viewer meets Self-Hate, the man in marble scolding his own mirror reflection: ”Don’t ever funcking do that again you fucking idiot!”, Colonial Romance, an elderly marble man in trunks trying to kiss a young asian woman (a commix of a classic motif by Gauguin and Jes Brinch’s own observations of the sex turism in Vietnam) and Head, a surreal portrait of a meditative state where the mind literally flows out of the cranium. The viewer can ascend the three Chinese concrete mountains Mountain of Tradition, Moutain of Love and Mountain of Friendship, manifesting the hypocritical aspects of the words: tradition, love and friendship. And she can get lost in modern society’s sometimes incomprehensible authority and status systems, that Jes Brinch has mapped out on soft tapestries – e.g. Lifestyle Suicide, in which you catch a glimpse of a man who has to stand on his Wegner chair in order to get a noose around his neck. All of the physical works are framed by a soundtrack produced specifically for the exhibition.

Today Jes Brinch is officially recognised as one of Denmark’s most important contemporary artists. He is currently living in Vietnam with his vietnamese girlfriend. The Perversions of Mechanical Normality was produced in Vietnam in 2007 with the support of the Danish Arts Council. The day after The Perversions of Mechanical Normality opens at V1 Gallery, the exhibition The Human Mind by Jes Brinch og Per Elbke opens on VesterfÊlledvej 7A.

We are looking forward to seeing you.

V1 Gallery. Absalonsgade 21B. 1655 Kbh V. www.v1gallery.com
Wed-Fri: 2pm –6pm. Sat: 12pm – 4pm. Jes Brinch will be available for interviews in the week prior to the opening. For more information on the exhibition please contact V1 Gallery:
+(45) 33 31 03 21 / +(45) 26 82 81 66 / elg@v1gallery.com.
Thank you Danish Arts Council, Tuborg, Pernod & Nanna Thylstrup for text.

***

PAINTING EXHIBITION BY THE SCULPTURE CLUB KUBIK

2007-07-23T15:02:00.000+02:00

MALERIUDSTILLING AF SKULPTURKLUBBEN KUBIK
PAINTING EXHIBITION BY THE SCULPTURE CLUB KUBIK

26. JULI – 25. AUGUST 2007.

JULY 26TH – AUGUST 25TH 2007.

VELKOMMEN TIL FERNISERING TORSDAG 26. JULI 2007, KL. 17 – 20.

WELCOME TO THE OPENING THURSDAY JULY 26TH 2007, 5 – 8 PM.

Lene Barnkob Kaas, Stine Barr Prebensen, Anders Bonnesen, Thomas Bjørkå,

Espen Brandt-Møller, Christina Bredahl Duelund, Peter Böttger, Lene Desmentik,

Sophus Ejler Jepsen, Maria Hornshøj, Heine Kjærgaard Klausen, Esben Klemann,

Ole Lorin, Tina Maria Nielsen, Kristian Sverdrup, Tina Uhrskov, Kirstine Vaaben.

MED VENLIG HILSEN/BEST REGARDS

G A L E R I E B I R T H E L A U R S E N
Bredgade 30 kld. 1260 København K
telefon (+45) 33 36 27 07 fax(+45) 33 36 27 05
Onsdag – torsdag - fredag 12-18, lørdag 10-14
brl@birthelaursen.com www.birthelaursen.com

***

Danish newspaper in English (JP)

2007-07-23T13:25:00.000+02:00

Jyllands-Posten is Denmark’s largest newspaper both in its printed version and on the Internet

DENMARK's INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPER

With its high reputation for unbiased news and forthright opinions, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten is Denmark's most widely read newspaper - and the country's outstanding newspaper success of recent years. Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten is read by more than 485,000 people on weekdays and 718,000 on Sundays, the only truly national readership of any Danish paper.

Jyllands-Posten, however, not only offers a printed newspaper with a circulation of currently 143.723 on weekdays and 192.492 on Sundays.

The name also incorporates a news service offering Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten on the Internet.

Owned by a private foundation until the end of the year 2002, Jyllands-Posten was completely independent of institutional or political affiliations or other external influences. Editorial independence, a broad international horizon and a strong commitment to journalistic accuracy and reliability have been the guiding principles behind Jyllands-Posten's success.

1 January 2003 saw the merger of the Jyllands-Posten A/S publishing company and Politiken A/S, which up till then had published Politiken and Ekstra Bladet.

To undertake the publishing of all three newspapers a new company was formed in connection with the merger.

However, each newspaper will retain its editorial freedom and individuality under the terms of the merger.

Editorial independence and hence trustworthiness therefore still underlie the operations of Jyllands-Posten.

The merger left Denmark's newspaper market with two major players: The independent Jyllands-Posten/Politiken group and the Berlingske group owned by Orkla, a diversified Norwegian company.

Jyllands-Posten's two head offices are situated in Aarhus and Copenhagen - the centres of the two most populated areas in Denmark. Furthermore, news departments in four towns and cities around Denmark offer readers the most extensive news coverage in the country.

Currently Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has full-time staff correspondents in Beijing, London, Berlin, Amman, Bruxelles, Prag, Washington, Rom, Bangkok, Paris, Moskva and Buenos Aires.

***

Video: "Speeding in Denmark"

2007-07-08T20:56:00.000+02:00

Copenhagen is Scandinavia's most desirable city

2007-06-21T08:36:00.000+02:00

IHT.COM: It's not often that an advertising slogan sums up the spirit of a city, but the one adorning a billboard for new homes designed by young Danish architects - "there's something modern in the state of Denmark" - encapsulates Copenhagen's current mood of creative maelstrom and youthful dynamism rather adroitly.

Not that the charms of Danish society in general, and those of its capital in particular, have previously gone unremarked; a 2006 survey found Denmark to be the happiest place in the world, based on standards of health, welfare, and education. But commentators were starting to insinuate that the city's cool might be sliding into complacency; after all, weren't the main attractions still the twee Little Mermaid and the quaint Tivoli Gardens amusement park? Even the design legacy of Arne Jacobsen - the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel stuffed full of Egg chairs, the National Bank - was more heritage than here-and-now.

That has all changed. A new wave of Danish architects, designers and chefs, plus some joined-up thinking by city officials, has seen Copenhagen reborn to the extent that locals now refer to it as the gateway to mainland Europe. "A few years ago, Sweden was the place to be," says a stylist at a fashion shoot on the harbour-front. "Now everyone in Scandinavia wants to move to Copenhagen."

The reasons are self-evident, from the award-winning glass control tower and teak-floored extension at Kastrup airport to the freshly-minted statement buildings lining the harbour, including Henning Larsen's Opera House and the redoubtable national library building, known as the "Black Diamond". New design boutiques such as Hay showcase Jacobsen's heirs, while once down-at-heel areas such as Vesterbro (the old red-light district) and Nørrebro are seeing a rash of restaurant and bar openings. These give locals even more opportunities to pull up on their bicycles (their favourite activity: six out of ten residents use a bike daily) and enjoy a drink and smoke (their second and third favourite activities, to the extent that life expectancy is among the lowest in western Europe; a fact they are serenely unmoved by).

The bullish mood is aided by the fact that Copenhagen is a young city - 35 per cent of its population is aged 20 to 34 - and that the Danish National Bank announced in March that Denmark is now a creditor nation (owed more than it owes) for the first time since the Second World War.

"The city is awash in money," says a local journalist. "Ten years ago, heads would turn if a Porsche went by on the street. Now they're everywhere." There's even a mooted rethink of the moratorium on skyscrapers, passed by referendum in the 1970s that keeps Copenhagen a defiantly low-rise capital.

Some worry that the city is already reaping the boom-town whirlwind in the form of prohibitive property prices and an erosion of the freewheeling hippie idealism that's been a part of Copenhagen's self-image since the 1960s. This is epitomised by attempts to "normalise" Christiania, a commune in an old army barracks; attempted evictions recently sparked street riots. But, for all the changes in their midst, a Copenhagener's default mode is always sanguinity. "I can't think of any other city in the world where you could bring a picnic to the park and then go off and swim in the harbour," says a design student. "I would never live anywhere else."

Copenhagen Metrics

Population: 503,699.

International flights: flights to 125 international destinations (13 long haul).

Crime: murders, nine; domestic break-ins, 3,475.

Education: Copenhagen has a textbook network of state schools and universities.

Medical care: healthcare provision is universal - appropriately for a country with one of the highest cancer rates in Europe.

Sunshine: annual average, 1,670 hours.

Temperature: January average temperature 0C, July average 17C.

Wired: 147 public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Tolerance: Denmark legalised same-sex unions in 1989. Attempts to evict residents from the alternative enclave of Christiania have raised hackles. Let's not forget relations with the Muslim community.

Drinking and shopping: alcohol laws are liberal, with bars staying open as late as their patrons demand. Shops adhere to a more rigid regime; most open around 11.00 and close dead on 18.00, while nearly all close on Sundays.

Public transport: the first phase of a metro system opened in 2003, with another two phases ready for this year and 2012 respectively. From April to December, the City Bike season allows you to release one of 2,000 bikes provided across the city for €2.70 - it can then be returned at any rack.

Local media: the city is well-served, with six daily papers, including the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, which printed the Prophet Mohammed cartoons last year.

International media: leading newspapers and magazines are widely available.

Green space: most apartment blocks boast communal gardens at their rear. Locals are partial to picnicking in the Kongens Have (King's Garden).

Access to nature: forests, beaches and parkland all a short trip away.

Environmental initiatives: extensive recycling programmes. The mayor is also attempting to bring in congestion charging and car-free zones for the city centre.

Look out for: the New Royal Theatre building which will open next year.

There are also plans to build three new swimming facilities in the harbour following the huge success of the Copenhagen Harbour Bath.

#1: Munich
#2: Copenhagen
#3: Zurich
#4: Tokyo
#5: Vienna
#6: Helsinki
#7: Sydney
#8: Stockholm
#9: Honolulu
#10: Madrid
#11: Melbourne
#12: Montreal
#13: Barcelona
#14: Kyoto
#15: Vancouver
#16: Auckland
f#17: Singapore
#18: Hamburg
#19: Paris
#20: Geneva

***

Tom Sanford @ Galleri Faurschou

2007-06-21T06:12:00.000+02:00

Tom Sanford
Bad Religion
21.06.07 - 18.08.07
Bad Religion is Tom Sanford’s second solo exhibition at Galleri Faurschou. The show marks a departure for Tom Sanford as he has left the exploration of Hip-hop culture behind and now presents us with his personal account of the American condition, at present, four years into the current holy war in Iraq.

Tom Sanford’s iconography reflects how American religiosity manifests through the popular imagination. Since the Cold War, according to Tom Sanford, the United States has defined itself as a moral nation – a nation of believers: America is God’s country. Since the retreat of godless Communism, American armies have marched around the world delivering God’s democracy and capitalism to the wretched of the earth. However this American crusade is one riddled with contradiction, as they slaughter those they claim to liberate, baptise their bodies in crude oil and sell them their sinful false idols.

Presented to us are Tom Sanford’s critical versions of the iconography of Christianity, Islam and modern religious movements such as Scientology. In his manner of depicting both Western and non-Western leaders, Tom Sanford argues that political leaders abuse their religiosity in promoting other causes.
Also present are new types of religious worship, the celebrity, whose every move is well documented in the media as well as omnipresent company logos, presented as golden icons, symbolising our worship of consumption.

In this exhibition, Sanford highlights the significance, and the continuous influence, that American culture, media and politics exert over us. Everything from American films, actors, politicians, companies, sports teams, religious leaders make up that which Tom Sanford refers to as Bad Religion.

The opening is Thursday June 21st from 5-7 p.m., where the artist will be present.

***

Hotel Front

2007-05-30T21:01:00.001+02:00

Arne Jacobsen may be a national hero, but it's a relief to find a new hotel in the Danish capital that doesn't feel obliged to dot its lobby with his Egg chairs. Instead, the Front has a scrambled sense of style. Seating in the lobby-lounge is on low sofas in shades of shocking pink and ultraviolet. One wall is a giant blackboard on which guests can scribble messages in coloured chalk, while modern art hangs alongside portraits of former queens of Denmark. The adjoining bar has a thriving weekend cocktail scene while the restaurant serves good, uncomplicated food (tuna-and-chips, meatloaf, truffle risotto) but disappointing breakfasts (there's no excuse for bad butter in the land of Lurpak). In contrast to the vibrant public spaces, the 133 bedrooms excluding those on the unrenovated 6th floor are monochromatic: black furniture, white walls, black-and-white bedding, dove-grey carpets. Free beers in the mini-bar add to the masculine atmosphere. It's a surprise, after all this starkness, to find the bathrooms have cobbled floors. Demand a harbour view, so that you can gaze across at the glowing glass façade of the opera house, designed by Henning Larsen, which opened in 2005. The Front has its drawbacks, including geriatric lifts and poor soundproofing and a lack of bathtubs, but its waterfront location is ideal for anyone who wants quiet days browsing the arts-and-antiques stores of Bredgade followed by exuberant nights in the bars of Nyhavn.

WHEN TO GO
As with all Scandinavian cities, visit in June, when the long days induce a seasonal euphoria in the natives.

ROOM TO BOOK
Number 402 or 502: Medium Sea View Rooms that have great views of the Opera House.

CONTACT
Skt Annae Plads 21, Copenhagen, Denmark (00 45 3313 3400; www.front.dk).

COST
Doubles from 200 euros; Medium Sea View Rooms 270 euros

***

Samsung Design Revolution

2007-03-08T13:08:00.000+01:00

Samsung Design Revolution
5 March – 24 June 2007

The South Korean electronics company Samsung has been expanding rapidly on the global market have in the past decade. The exhibition is the story of the company’s success, which is all about intensive focus on the integration of design, technology and business.

The exhibition is on show from 5 March to 24 June.

Per Arnoldi’s Colourful Journey

Per Arnoldi has created the film ‘Colourful Journey’ for Samsung’s new ‘Mosel’ TV. Per Arnoldi uses the screen as a virtual canvas on which to blend colour and movement and thereby create communication. In 5 minutes the composition shows thousands of colours. Colourful Journey consists of seven geometrical elements: Three blue and three red triangles and a small dramatic yellow triangle. The music is composed by jazz pianist Niels Lan Doky for Arnoldi’s journey through the colours. The work is exhibited in the standing exhibition ‘Utopias and reality’ in the 20th Century collection. Museum no 2/2007.

www.arnoldi.dk

Samsung mobile phone

At the same time, the museum acquired the Samsung X820 mobile phone from 2006 which is also on display in the standing exhibition.

The ultra slim mobile phone design is in line with the post-war miniature design traditions. Compact design means high tech and black signals masculinity, power and magic. The actual size of the X820 is not significantly smaller than other contemporary mobile phones but the flat shape makes the X820 appear smaller and more elegant, but most importantly, the large surface makes it easier to operate. As the B&O design of the Seventies, the keyboard is flush with the surface which adds to the overall impression of the mobile phone. The material is a particularly strong fiber-reinforced plastic found in airplanes. Museum no 1/2007.

David Lynch at Statens Museum for Kunst

2007-03-05T14:41:00.000+01:00

Do not miss out on the famous filmmaker David Lynch at Statens Museum for Kunst Wednesday 7 March at 4.30 p.m. In this extraordinary event David Lynch presents his new book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity. Buy the book and get the signature of the author.

David Lynch at Statens Museum for Kunst
The awardwinning filmmaker David Lynch presents his new book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity and answers questions from the audience.

David Lynch is one of the most creative and fascinating artists of our time. He is the director of the cult-serie Twin Peaks and the films Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, and the new INLAND EMPIRE.

Book signing
Buy the book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity in the museum bookshop, Arnold Busck, and get the signature of the author after the speak.
Special offer: 150 DKK

The Stage: Wednesday 7 March at 4.30 p.m.
Price: 70 DKK
The tickets can be bought from 3 p.m. in the entrance hall at the museum.

Photo: Selfportrait: David Lynch

NEW EXHIBITION. Ann Lislegaard: Crystal World

2007-03-04T00:42:00.000+01:00

x-rummet at Statens Museum for Kunst 24 February - 5 August 2007

Mutating architectural structures, crystallised landscapes and an almost hyper-real light. The Norwegian-born artist Ann Lislegaard's animation piece Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard) draws the spectator into a science fiction universe in x-rummet at Statens Museum for Kunst.

In her photographs, videos, 3D animation pieces, and sound/light works Ann Lislegaard explores the structures through which reality is constructed - how we relate to the spaces we move through, and how applied social notions define our consciousness, gender, and self image.

Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard)
Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard) is an evocative and silent 3-D animation. A journey to an abandoned hotel situated in a slowly crystallising dense wilderness. There are traces of a catastrophe. Water is forcing its way through the architecture. Chairs, beds and cupboards are displaced, drifting through the rooms. The crystalline world that emerges is one of infinite reflections. It is sci-fi scenario of change and destabilisation.

In Crystal World (after J. G. Ballard) Lislegaard investigates the possibility of creating an alternative reality. A new structure that challenges our usual preconceptions of time and place. Lislegaard uses the crystal as a metaphor to describe how the experience of the present and the physical surroundings are filtered through previous accumulation and breakdown of memories and experiences. A mental state in decay and change at one and the same time - a super-crystalline structure.

Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard) invokes an entropic future that is both a physical state and a state of mind. The artist's poetic, yet disturbing work slowly transforms the xrummet into a universe where spectators glide into a timeless stasis of a parallel world.

The installation takes its cue from the British science fiction writer J.G. Ballard's conceptual novel The Crystal World from 1966. The installation is the second part of the artist's trilogy of works with science fiction as their overall theme. The first, Bellona (after Samuel R. Delany), was presented at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005.

As well as references to J.G. Ballard's science fiction scenarios, Lislegaard alludes to icons of modernism like Oscar Niemeyers's Pavillion in São Paulo, Lina Bo Bardi's glass house Casa de Vidro, Eva Hesse's immaterial sculpture and Robert Smithson's Dead Tree from 1969.

About the artist
Ann Lislegaard (b. 1962) is a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Her works have been exhibited at prominent venues in Denmark and internationally; the MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the MOMA Museum of Modern Art Oxford, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and at Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst in Denmark. Lislegaard recently contributed to the São Paulo Biennial in 2006, where the work Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard) was presented for the first time. Lislegaard lives and works in Copenhagen and New York.

Metro In Five Minutes

2007-02-19T14:00:00.001+01:00

Copenhagen is building a Metro that will link parts of the Danish capital in a new way. For the first time ever, the large urban areas to the east and west will be linked with the city centre acting as the hub.

The Route

First part of the Metro opens 19. October 2002. This part runs from Nørreport to Lergravsparken and from Nørreport to Ørestad.

In May 2003 phase 2A from Nørreport to Frederiksberg opens. Phase 2B from Frederiksberg to Vanløse opens later that year. The last part of the Metro, running to Copenhagen Airport, opens in 2007. The total distance of the route is 21 km. 10 km elevated or on embankment and the rest in tunnels.

There will be 22 stations. Nine below ground and 13 above ground stations. Metro's lowest point is 33 m below ground level. The tunnel stations are situated between 9 and 18 m below ground.

There is never more than 300 m to the nearest exit in the tunnels. Either to a station or a tunnel shaft (emergency exit).

The Train

There will be a total of 34 train sets on the tracks. In the initial phase, though, there will only be 19 sets. A Metro train consists of 3 cars. The length is 39 m and the width is 2,65 m. There is room for 300 passengers in each train set, corresponding to approx. 5 city buses. 96 passengers will have a seat and 204 may stand. Busses and trains in the capital region use the same ticket system as the Metro.

The Metro has a top speed of 80 km/h and the average travelling speed is 40 km/h, which is 3 times more than that of a city bus. Travel time from the terminus in Vanløse to terminus Vestamager is only 26 minutes.

There is no driver in the trains, as the trains are fully automatic. There is, however, a metro steward in every train set. His job is to check the tickets, provide information and help the passengers.

The trains are designed by Giugaro Design in Italy. Giugaro develops a range of industrial designs from Canon cameras to cars such as Bugatti and VW Golf. Graceful lines and elegant details combined with a high level of functionality characterize the trains.

Timetables

The Metro is designed to run around the clock with headways down to just 90 sec. In the first months of operation, rush hour intervals between trains will be 3 minutes on the main line and 6 minutes on the lines to Ørestad and Lergravsparken. Intervals will then decrease to 90 sec on the main line.

The trains run every 15 minutes throughout the night. During the first months, night service will be available during the weekends only.

Construction and Economy

The Comet consortium is the general contractor for the Metro tunnels, underground stations and elevated railway. Comet is an international joint venture of leading contractors from several fields.
Ansaldo is the railway supplier and has built the Metro trains. It is an Italian corporation with 37 subsidiaries around the World - and 6,000 employees. Ørestad Development Corporation has two assignments - to build Copenhagen's new Metro and to develop the new neighbourhood Ørestad at Amager. The ØDC is a partnership between Copenhagen City (55 %) and the State (45 %) represented by the Minister of transportation.

Metro Service A/S Runs and maintains the Metro during the first five years. The company is a sub contractor to Ansaldo.

The Metro’s budget for the 3 phases is DKK 12.3 billion (2006 price level). The construction is financed by loans that will be paid back in 25-30 years. The funds for the repayment come from the operation, sale of land in Ørestad and through contributions from Frederiksberg City and Copenhagen County.

Laura Baruel @ Kunstindustrimuseet

2007-02-17T14:10:00.000+01:00

Wilderness

16 February - 8 April 2007

Past meets present in Laura Baruël’s dress sculptures.

Fashion and textile designer Laura Barüel takes her cue from the relation between modern man and nature and is inspired by the physical and geographical place – nature, landscape, climate, light and colours. Based on an interest in the Nordic, the idea is to further explore and visualise the relations between man, garment and place.

The exhibition revolves around the idea of primitive man’s basic need for protection of the body, and the subsequent desire to express oneself through bodily adornment. Laura Baruël has gathered organic material for the project that reflects Nordic nature with the changing of the seasons. The vegetable fibres have been ‘frozen’ in their present state using preservative liquids, which penetrate the cells and conserve the flexibility of the fibres. They are used as elements in the robes, and to Laura Baruël they symbolize a kind of primary language, coloured by the impenetrability of the forest as part of the pre-historic Nordic landscape.

But we are far from ‘back to the stone age’ because Laura Baruël is a contemporary fashion designer, and she herself perceives her dress sculptures as visions of the future. While being inspired by an understanding of the life styles and rites of a distant past, Laura Baruël utilizes modern textile and artificial fibres, and a mixture of classical and experimenting techniques to express her own very special feminine imaginary world. The plant fibres are sewn into a specific pattern on a polyester-net, larger or smaller areas are cut out and the different elements are draped directly onto the dressmaker’s dummy. The shapes of the fibres help determine the position and direction of the material.

The style mixes inspiration from ancient fertility sculptures and from the more experimental part of international fashion design, stimulated by an apprenticeship in Tokyo with the Japanese fashion designer Yoshiko Hishinuma, who works mainly with pleats and traditional Japanese printing techniques.

The exhibition is open from 16 February to 8 April 2007

Last updated 16.02.2007

Fascination of Transportation @ DDC

2007-02-17T13:48:00.000+01:00

18 Nov 2006 - 18 Mar 2007, Danish Design Centre

Experience the eight cars that represent the last 50 years’ best international car design, when fascination of the car’s design, shape and aesthetics is in focus.

A jury of Danish car experts has selected eight different cars which, from a design viewpoint, constitute examples of the world’s best car design. The cars all represent design which is the result of a realization of a design concept. However, although the jury has spoken, the design and car interested have to be patient. The cars will not be revealed until the opening of the exhibition.

The reason why the Danish Design Centre has chosen to put focus on car design is that cars are very much exponent of design, new trends and innovation. Moreover, the car is probably currently the strongest symbol of personal freedom that there is, and at the same time, except for our homes, it is the most expensive design product that we invest in.

In addition to the eight cars, the exhibition will also show three varying cars, which put focus on customization of cars, safety, intelligent cars and Danish car designers’ influence on international car design.

The Jury

The jury is constituted by architect, writer and expert on car design Niels Kryger (president of the jury), the internationally renowned Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, responsible editor-in-chief for the Danish magazine “Bil Magasinet” Mikkel Thomsager and responsible editor-in-chief for the Danish magazine “Motor” Christian Koch.

The cars have been selected on the following criteria:

· The cars must be produced in the period from 1950 till today.

· The selection must happen on the basis of a professional design
motivation with focus on the cars’ appearance and aesthetics, rather than for example the cars’ technical equipment, driving properties, economy or environmental concern etc.

· The cars must all be, or have been, industrially produced.

Inside/Outside - furniture exhibition by Jakob Berg

2007-02-17T13:42:00.000+01:00

Experience industrial designer Jakob Berg’s indoor and outdoor furniture staged with light and patterns by textile designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen. The exhibition ”Inside/Outside” shows at the Danish Design Centre from 13 January – 18 March 2007.

The exhibition presents different types of furniture produced worldwide: Dining chairs, deck chairs, outdoor chairs and rest chairs. Step into the design world of Jakob Berg and get to know his work process, sketches and models.

Jakob Berg’s introduction to the exhibition:
”The title 'Inside/Outside' refers to the fact that I work with both indoor and outdoor furniture and with manufacturers abroad. I make designs for companies in a number of countries, including Latvia, Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Vietnam, Egypt and Bolivia. The latter through a Danida project with sustainable furniture design. For a number of years I have worked with design in third-world countries: In Egypt and Bolivia with furniture in wood and in Vietnam with furniture in laminated form-bent bamboo as an alternative to tropical hardwood.

With these projects I hope to highlight the new role that Danish furniture design might play on the global design scene. We may help to achieve sustainable production and fair trade for third-world countries, while also securing new markets and impulses for Danish designers. The golden age of Danish design was based on wooden furniture and the belief that design should be able to be bought and used by everyone. Now, these designs have become classics, available only to high-end buyers, because their production is so labour-intensive.

The production of wooden furniture is not particularly high-tech, so developing nations are capable of producing amazing furniture if we contribute design knowledge. This collaboration is benefitting both partners – This enables us to democratise the use of design."

Industrial Designer Jakob Berg graduated from the School of Architecture in Copenhagen in 1987. Berg has created furniture designs for a range of companies in Denmark and abroad, including Trip Trap Furniture A/S, SC-Møbler, Schou Andersen Møbler (all in Denmark) and furniture factories in Vietnam, Portugal, Bolivia, Latvia, Egypt and Sweden. Berg has won a number of design awards, including the Scandinavian Furniture Award 1991, CSMD's award in 1995 and the Danish magazine Bo Bedre's Special Award 1996; he has also received a working grant from The Danish Arts Foundation.

Textile Designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen graduated from the Danish School of Art and Design in 1984 and has since had a large design production, with an emphasis on textile design. In particular, Østergaard Jakobsen is known for her decoration projects in Denmark and abroad, and she has held a number of exhibitions in Danish museums, mostly in the form of installations with printed fabrics and furniture, designed in collaboration with Jakob Berg.

LIGHT OF TOMORROW @ DAC

2007-02-17T13:18:00.000+01:00

LIGHT OF TOMORROW
February 8th to April 9th 2007

With this exhibition DAC and VELUX examines the role of the daylight in the architecture of the future. For the second time VELUX has sponsored the competition International VELUX Award for students of architecture. Louise Grønlund from Denmark won with a project entitled ‘A museum of photography’. The winning project is exhibited along with runners-up and honourable mentions.

Mikael Kvium @ Ordrupgaard

2007-02-17T12:16:00.000+01:00

19 January 07 - 15 July 07

SILENT EYE
New works by Michael Kvium

In recent years, Kvium's art has taken a turn in an entirely new direction. Birch trunks, sheep, sky and landscape are among his new motifs. Kvium probes the very meaning of nature and landscape painting.

It is new paintings made especially for Ordrupgaard. None of the paintings have been shown to the public. At Ordrupgaard, they enter into an installational dialogue with the architecture of Zaha Hadid's innovative extension to the museum.

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Counsil's Committee for Visual Arts and Jensen's Bøfhus.

PAUL McCARTHY @ ARoS

2007-02-17T11:54:00.000+01:00

McCARTHY ART ARoS

The first large exhibition at ARoS in 2007 is in the hands of the American artist Paul McCarthy (born 1945). In a large-scale installation of 2000 m2 staged by the artist he will present the main works of his 40 years’ career as an artist. The exhibition is thus a totally unique opportunity to view the development in the production of one of the greatest and most influential artists of our time from the mid 1960’s up to the present time.

With his large and complex installations this world famous provocateur raises a severe criticism against the American dream as well as the conventions and taboos of the western culture. Even though McCarthy in many ways gets his inspiration from the dream factories of Hollywood and Disney, his film and works represent an alternative dream factory. His works are obtrusive, scary and often seem like ”sheer madness” without purpose. It is fierce humour, horror and lust.

Duane Hanson @ Arken

2007-02-17T09:47:00.000+01:00

Sculptures of the American Dream

"Why not look at this guy sitting right next to me, what’s going on, what I see on the TV and in the newspaper," Duane Hanson said of his work. And that is exactly what he did: Throughout more than thirty years he created art which in a very tangible and concrete manner shows ‘the guy next to him’ and the America surrounding him.

With satire, humour and compassion Duane Hanson puts a human face on the American Dream: that of the bodybuilder, the cowboy, the pensioner, etc.

He was especially fascinated by old people, big people and workmen; by wrinkles, furrows and scars who speak of the life that has been lived. He explored the stories written in the body.

All of spring 2007 ARKEN presents 22 of Hanson’s lifelike sculptures and nine sculpture parts.

In connection with the exhibition Hatje Cantz has put out a fully illustrated book. The book is on sale in the museum shop at DKK 199 and in ARKEN's museum shop online.

Cindy Sherman @ Louisiana

2007-02-15T12:08:00.000+01:00

Cindy Sherman-30 years of staged photography 16.2.-20.5.2007

Self-dramatization is a key concept in the American artist Cindy Sherman’s production. She uses herself as model and photographs herself in changing disguises. By manipulating her own body by means of make-up, clothes and artificial body parts, she appears in different forms and figures that range from the amusing and humorous to the provocative and violent. The exhibition has been organized by the Jeu de paume, Paris, and co-produced with the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, and the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.

WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS > Denmark’s Leading Hotel: Hotel d'Angleterre

2006-09-22T18:23:00.000+02:00