COPENHAGEN CALLING - BIG DANES ON TOP OF THE WORLD

On April 19th 2016, the talk show formatted happening "Copenhagen Calling" took place in the offices of BIG with the above view. A gathering of some of the best creative minds Denmark has to offer to the world. Copenhagen Calling was a collaboration between The Alternative and Bjarke Ingels Group, with assistance and sponsorship of the snacks and wine by The Danish Consulate General in New York City. The weater was wonderful and the whole evening was bathed in sun and mindblowing views and perspectives.
( photo by Jesper Hyuk Larsen)

The very same evening, the New York Primaries was held, where the only hope left for USA - Bernie Sanders - was about to loose to Hillary Clinton. The room was filled to firecode limits and a undercover NYPD officer was in a corner with a visable firearm on his side. Mogens Lykketoft, was in the room and with the work he is currently undertaking at the United Nations, a personal security guy is part of it. 

In above clip, Mogens Lykketoft talks about Bernie Sanders, saying he could be a good President for the United States. And even if he does not  win, he has already influenced American politics and the future of the Democratic party.

New York was Feeling the Bern!

Copenhagen Calling was moderated by Canadian Peter Macleod and Danish Ambassador - Consul General for Denmark Anne Dorte Riggelsen in New York - in above photo taken by Jesper Hyuk Larsen.

The drawing behind her and above, is by Jesper Hyuk Larsen specially made for this New York Adventure.

Mogens Lykketoft - President of the UN Assembly, former party leader of The Social Democrats and former Speaker of the Danish Parliment.

Bjarke Ingels - Architect and creative mastermind behind Bjarke Ingels Group, who currently has several projects going on in New York City, and beyond.

Jacob Kampp Berliner - Serial entrepreneur, Record label Director and CEO of fashion brand Soulland.
Jacob is also in charge of the minimal and clever clothing style of his father, and recent nominated fashion icon Uffe Elbæk.

Nanna Fabricius A.K.A. Oh Land - former ballet dancer turned Pop Icon who has taken the world by storm with her carefully crafted pop tunes, that stick in your ears and mind. Nanna came with her newly born baby, who had his first outing in public.

Uffe Elbæk - Member of the Danish Parliment, former Minister of Culture and political leader of The Alternative. The Alternative is a generous, action-oriented international party with a special focus on serious sustainable transition, a new political culture and the entrepreneurial creative power of society and individuals. 

Jimmy Maymann - Executive Vice President and President of AOL Content and Consumer Brands, former boss at HuffPost. Legendary Danish entrepreneur, and hero to many Danish Business school student.
All of the above portraits by Jesper Hyuk Larsen

The theme for the talk with Jimmy and Bjarke, was how they had gotten so far in such short time. What is the drive? What are the most important to learn form the road there. What was the biggest failures?

Another perspective

The whole evening was directly shown LIVE on The Alternative's Facebook Page, mostly for the people back in Denmark who had better things to do. However, the whole event still can be seen as a facebook video HERE.

Jacob has 11 companies that he runs with various friends and collaborators.

Nanna talks about the need for passion and love for what one does in life. This is key.
To Nanna's left Peter Macleod  - co-moderator.

The question was - what is the future in your field? 

The audience was also great, with artists such as above New York local art activist Noah Fischer, video artist Jesper Just, musician Bubba from the duo My Bubba and in the long black hair Triangle Member and Occupy spokesperson Anup Desai.

The lady in Red and sun on the side of her face, is the dynamic New York Cultural Attache Maiken Tandgaard Derno. Another gracious donation came from Carlsberg, who made sure everyone attending would get a taste of Denmark, litterally. Sitting with the baby is artist and Nanna's husband Eske Kath.

The Danish Top Model Terese Pagh was also in attendance, together with Croatian New York based artist, magazine publisher, film maker and poet Anton Perich.

Bjarke insisted that in the middle of all the doom and gloom in the news and media, that we are in a good place in history, we just need to have big new thoughts to make a change. This after Uffe talked about the extreme weather conditions measured in the beginning of 2016, being the warmest in measured history.

Focus on what that can be done, not on what is wrong.

And here are Bjarke's words in a video, with answers by Mogens and Uffe.
There are also questions and comments from the audience including from Anup Desai, about Jante Law and his "Bullshit Detector".

When Uffe asked Mogens what he thought about his idea to start a new political party, he thought it was a bad idea!

Setting Sun



My Bubba is the duo of Swedish My Larsdotter and Icelandic Bubba Tomasdottir who ended the evening with their crisp and delicate sound. In above video they perform a song with claps and body drumming styles, kind of like Simon Garfunkle's song "Cecilia".

My Bubba takes you to their own universe, that could be Ingmar Bergman's Fårø. Their music could be the soundtrack to an updated version of Persona, where they sing and play the roles of the two women in symbiosis stuck on a sunny Swedish Island on a light summer nights dream.

Love was in the Air, and for the English version of the above book about The Alternative "Love is in the Air", several of the images in this blogpost will appear. Copenhagen will soon be Calling again, and plans for next years version is under development.

Thanks to Jesper Hyuk Larsen for all his wonderful photos in this post!