The aim of the series of events is to show the colourful cultural, economic and political connections between the countries around the Baltic Sea, said Gabriele Gauler, director of Budapest's Goethe Institute. The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain played an important role in planning the events, she added.
Anu Kippasto, the director of the Estonian Institute in Hungary, said the Baltic Sea Festival is really four festivals in one, celebrating the fine arts, film, literature and music.
The VAM Design Center is hosting an exhibition of modern bicycle culture, showing everything from bicycle design to city planning, entitled Dreams On Wheels as part of the festival. Another exhibition, called Christiania in Art, shows the work of eight Danish artists little known outside of their hometown Christiania. Reet Aus - Speaking Clothes is an installation of objects made from recycled materials from the Makeedesign, Laurase and Secco collections.
Budapest's Kino art cinema will screen films from countries around the Baltic Sea between September 3 and October 12. The programme includes an experimental film (The Shoe); a road movie set in Lithuania (Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania); dramas from Estonia (Georgica), Latvia (In the Shadow of Death) and Lithuania (The Collectress); a Polish love film from Zanussi (Silent Touch); a classic by Bille August (Pelle, the Conqueror); a German musical comedy (Dorfpunks); a Swedish documentary (The East Indiaman); a Danish comedy (Gone with the Fish); a Finnish historical film (Promise); and Estonian shorts (Paradise for Old Men, Empty).
The Goethe Institute will host an evening with famous crime writers on September 26. Gretelise Holm from Denmark, the Estonian Indrek Hargla, the Finn Leena Lehtolainen, Mariusz Czubaj from Poland, the Swede Hakan Nesser and the German Jan Seghers will participate at the event dubbed Murder Night. The authors will read in their own language with simultaneous interpretation in English.
Baltic jazz is also on the programme with performances by the Lars Danielsson Quartet, the Lotte Anker September Quartet and the MKMB Quartet.
The Baltic Sea Festival, organised by the culture institutes and embassies of the countries involved as well as by the European Union's culture institute alliance EUNIC, runs until October 12.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: vilaglato.hu
