The events are organized at different venues of the city in the period from September 15 to October 20, 2018.
Representatives of the organizers made a brief presentation of the upcoming events at the announcing press conference:
- Krister Bringeus , Ambassador of Sweden for cooperation of the Northern countries, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Northern countries in 2018,
- Dag M. Halvorsen ,the Consul General of Norway in St. Petersburg,
- Anna Lammilla, the Consul General of Finland in St.Petersburg,
- Maria Tetzlaff, Director of the Danish Cultural Institute in Saint-Petersburg,
- Sani Kontula-Webb, Director of Institute of Finland in Saint-Petersburg,
- Morten Frankby, Consul for Cultural Affairs and economic cooperation of the Consulate General of Sweden.
The St. Petersburg Administration was represented by the Foreign Relations Committee of St. Petersburg and the Committee for state control, usage, and protection of historical and cultural monuments of St. Petersburg.
As noted by the Ambassador of Sweden on the cooperation of the Nordic countries, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Northern countries in 2018 Christer Bringeus, the Nordic countries and Russia have very much in common, and it's not only a common border, the Baltic sea and centuries of history. At the moment, the cooperation between neighbouring countries is of a paramount importance. Only through joint efforts, effective solutions can be achieved in such areas as environmental protection, environmental management, demography and health. "It is a great honour and joy for me to open the Nordic Weeks in St. Petersburg," K. Bringeus said.
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Close cooperation between St. Petersburg and its Northern partners is also reflected in economic indicators. Thus, at the end of 2017, the trade turnover between St. Petersburg and Finland amounted to $ 1.6 billion. For incomplete 2018, it increased 1.7 times compared to the same period of the previous 2017, the turnover with Denmark increased 7 times and reached 1 billion US dollars. Sweden has increased by 13% and the volume of its mutual trade with St. Petersburg this year amounted to 290 million US dollars. At the same time, Sweden is the leader in terms of investments, as of April 1, 2018, they amounted to 1.8 billion US dollars. Norway has invested 237 million US dollars in St. Petersburg, and even small Iceland has invested in St. Petersburg 5.9 million US dollars.
As noted by the organizers, the main task of the festival is to tell Petersburgers and city guests about the Northern neighbours: about the traditions, culture, values and way of life, historical landmarks and current trends.
The main unifying theme of this year is neighbourhood and good-neighbourly relations.
The festival has been held in St. Petersburg since 2010 by the consulates General of Sweden, Finland and Norway, the Embassies of Denmark and Iceland in Moscow, the Institute of Finland and the Danish Institute of culture with the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Administration of St. Petersburg (represented by the St. Petersburg External Affairs Committee etc.).
The coordination of the festival annually moves from one Northern country to another in accordance with the chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Last year the festival was coordinated by the Consulate General of Norway, in 2018 this honourable task is assigned to the Consulate General of Sweden.
During the press conference, representatives of different countries presented their part of the program.
Director of the Danish Institute of culture in St. Petersburg Marie Tetzlaff told about the project "Waterfront". The project is being implemented for the second year within Weeks, and starts in early October with the forum "Cities by the water". The focus is on the transformation of coastal areas into comfortable public and cultural spaces, as well as the problems of using the city's embankments. There are presentations and performances, lectures and workshops for all who are interested in the theme of the city development in "Okhta LAB", October 6 . Cases of architectural and development projects will be presented by more than 10 leading experts from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Russia. Ms. Tetzlaff also mentioned the official meeting to be held on October 19 with the Danish Ombudsman for Bjarne Schilling readers. Petersburgers will also meet with the researcher of the Danish Institute of human rights Anette Faye Jacobsen on " children's Rights in Denmark: series of dilemmas".
Consul General of Finland in St. Petersburg Anna Lammilla told about the new hit Finnish hobby – riding on the toy horses on sticks (or, as it is called, hobbyhorse) and called Petersburgers to try the hobby themselves. There is a film about hobbyhorse with three young riders, one of which – Alice – will visit St. Petersburg in the framework of the festival "Discover your Europe in the Hermitage" on September, 22 to introduce the film and to teach everyone to provocatively hobbyhorse outdoors.
Sani Kontula-Webb, Director of the Institute of Finland in St. Petersburg, spoke about two films from Finland, which were included in the film festival "Message to man" within the framework of the special program of documentary films of the Nordic countries. Both films ("Perkele! Pictures from Finland" and "Perkele-2" ) – are honest stories about life in Finland since the 1970s up to our days. The festival will also be attended by Directors of almost all films, which in addition to meetings with the audience will hold workshops for students of specialized universities of the city.
Particularly audience was interested in a tale of two Finnish "sisu" and "kalsorikyannit" that hide under cultural phenomena and reflect the lifestyle and habits of the inhabitants of Finland. The word "sisu" is consonant with hard work and dedication, energy and willingness to act, achieving someone's goals. "kalsorikyannit" practically means when you are at home after a hard day on the couch in comfortable clothes with a drink and without vain thoughts. Apparently, the alternation of "kalsorikyannit" and "sisu" really helps the people of Finland not only to achieve goals but also to get pleasure from life. How to achieve the goals with "sisu" and relax "kalsorikyannit" can be heard in lectures and workshops as a part of the project The Nordic Way. The secrets of Northern happiness will be discovered by experts and authors of famous books on lifestyle, values and society in the Nordic countries.
Consul General of Norway Dag M. Halvorsen presented the children's part of the Nordic Weeks program. Young readers and their parents will be invited to an exhibition dedicated to Norwegian children's literature "Terribly interesting all that is unknown", which will be held in The children's library of foreign literature (3rd Sovetskaya str., 8). The exhibition will include more than 20 Norwegian authors and their best works for children, translated into Russian. Literature for children will also be discussed at the international scientific and theoretical colloquium with the participation of experts from the Nordic countries, the Institute of Russian literature, the Institute of world literature n.a. A. M. Gorky and the faculty of Philosophy of SPU. The event will take place on September 28 - 29 in the Institute of Russian literature and the Institute of Finland.
Also within Weeks, Norwegians will present in St. Petersburg an exhibition of paintings by Exan Crohn, who lived and worked in Russia from 1905 to 1917. The exhibition will open on September 27 in "Arts Square Gallery" (Italian street, 5). And on October 18, unknown works by Norwegian authors performed by Galina Sidorenko (mezzo-soprano) and Stanislav Solovyov (piano) will be performed at the Elena Obraztsova Cultural centre.
Mr. Halvorsen also spoke about the rapidly developing genre of comics in the Northern countries. Leading comic book authors, artists from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland will present their works from September 27 to October 15 at the Music and art centre of the library n.a. Mayakovsky and will hold a series of workshops.
Film Festival of the Nordic countries beloved by Petersburgers will be held October 11-14 in the city cinema " Aurora " in partnership with the project "InoeKino". This year for the first time the Festival program will include several films of the Faroe Islands.
Cultural Affairs and economic cooperation Counsel of the Consulate General of Sweden in St.-Petersburg Morten Frankby told about large projects and individual activities, which Sweden will represent in 2018. He invited everyone to the festival "Open your Europe", which will be held in the Hermitage on September 22 from 11.00 to 21.00. The Festival will be attended by about 20 diplomatic missions and cultural institutions, including a common stand of the Nordic countries and a number of national events from each country. Guests of the Festival's program, including a workshop on "LEGO" and hobbyhorses, meeting with funny Moomin trolls, etc. There will also be an educational workshop about the Vikings, lectures on design and lessons of Swedish and Danish, a concert of works by Northern composers.
In addition, Mr. Frankby recommended everyone to visit the exhibition of the Duo of talented photographers Cooper&Gorfer, who live in Gothenburg and create bright and memorable paintings inspired by the charm of the beauty of nature and the inhabitants of the North. The exhibition will open on October, 16 in the Museum and exhibition centre "ROSPHOTO".
The acting Chairman of the Committee on state control of the use and protection of historical and cultural monuments of St. Petersburg Leontiev A.G. raised the issues related to the preservation of wooden architecture and the promotion of the choice of wooden houses as housing. "The Northern neighbours in this have moved further than we, life in wooden houses is more popular, we need to learn from the Scandinavian experience," said Leontiev, and invited all the scientists to the conference on October 4. The conference on the preservation of cultural heritage – monuments of wooden architecture will be held within the framework of the Urban forum.
The festival program is prepared by the diplomatic missions and cultural institutions of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Finland in Russia, with the support of the Council of Ministers of Northern countries and of the Committee for external affairs of St. Petersburg in close cooperation with the St. Petersburg partners.
At the opening of the festival, Movchan S.N., the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, made a welcoming speech.
Full festival programme is available on the official website www.nordicweeks.ru and in the group of the festival "Week of Nordic countries" in Vkontakte and Facebook.
A photo album of press conference at link https://vk.com/album-18900049_256816274
Photo: Alexander Nikolaev / Interpress
Additional information for the media: 329-14-23, natalia.bratova@gov.se -Natalia Bratova, cultural and media coordinator at the Consulate General of Sweden in St. Petersburg.