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| Highlights From a Quarter Century | |
 Hundreds of Danish artists, writers, musicians, actors, theatre performers and other people have met, talked and interacted with their peers in the Baltics. This has taken place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and in Denmark. The work of the DCI lies in the exchange of views and experiences between people from all walks of life.
It is impossible to mention all the several thousand meetings, events and activities that have taken place during the 25 years that the Danish Cultural Institute has worked in the three Baltic Countries, but here are some examples.
The Institute quickly became a driving cultural force during the time of the Institutes first director, Rikke Helms. In June 1992, the Royal Symphony Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel) visited Tallinn and Riga together with around 200 Danish tourists on the ship; “Kristina Regina”. Among the tourists was Lise Nørgaard, author of the TV serial “Matador”, which has been aired in the three Baltic countries from 1991-1992 under the name “Monopol”.
In July 1992, the Danish Queen, Margrethe II, Prince Consort Henrik and Crown Prince Frederik went to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as the first State visit to the newly independent countries. As part of the royal visit, the exhibition “Living Design” traveled to all three Baltic countries. As part of the response, a major ballet event was organized in Tivoli in Denmark in 1993. These events were important in themselves and also paved the way for cooperation in Design, which today is still ongoing.
One of the largest intercultural adventures ever launched was a four-year cultural management project called “The Culture Inspectors”. The project involved 10 Danish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian municipalities, in total 40 people. In 2001, the Institute was part of a Danish-Latvian ballet production, based on the Danish poem ‘Butterfly Vally’ (Sommerfugledalen) by Inger Christensen. The fantastic sonnets were also translated into Latvian by Knuts Skujenieks and Inga Mezaraupe. The project shows how creative cooperation has become a central part of the Institute’s work and was conceived as a great success because of the fruitful cooperation between Latvian and Danish dancers.
The same year, the Institute initiated the project ‘Wooden Architecture in Cities’. The project raised awareness on Latvian wooden architecture as part of Latvian cultural heritage, and promoted restoration of the wooden houses in the city space. The project included a large conference and received additional publicity by the publishing of a book on Latvian wooden architecture.
Simon Drewsen Holmberg became director of the Danish Cultural Institute in 2005 and the pace has not slowed down. Looking at some of the more recent highlights, it is worth mentioning two contemporary Baltic and Nordic photographic projects: “Veins” and “Viewfinders”. “Veins” included the publishing of a photography book by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen and Danish photographer Aue Sobel. The book contains not more than a few pages of introducing text, leaving the exceptionally beautiful black-and-white photos to speak for themselves. In connection with the publishing, an exhibition was created with the photos. The photos are powerfully revealing and do not allow the eyes to wander. Instead, they insist on the viewer’s full attention. “Viewfinders” was a Nordic-Baltic photo exhibition with contemporary pictures. The photo exhibition was organized by the 2014 Riga Photomonth in cooperation with the “Riga 2014” foundation, the Danish Cultural Institutes in Riga, Nordic Council of Ministers, and Foto Kvartāls in 2014. After being exhibited in Riga, “Viewfinders” travelled as far as the city of Pingyao, China, and “Veins” as far as Curitiba, Brazil.
Photo: From the exhibition “Veins”
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