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!

COPENHAGEN CALLING - A DANISH ALL STAR EVENT AT BIG IN NEW YORK

POLAR BEAR CO2 EARTH DAY RIDE - EARTH DAY NEW YORK 2016

The United Nations Climate Summit COP21, that took place in Paris in the end of 2015, was a historically positive conference, where our world leaders promised to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.
To put focus on what the goals now are, and what they will do for the future of our world, the message of urgency will brought to New York during Earth Day on Union Square.

This is done with the revealing of the Sculpture “Unbearable” by the Danish artist Jens Galshiøt with his iconic speared Polar Bear. The peak of the spear represents the 2015 global CO2 levels. It is Intentional Art, with a clear and sharp message about the world we are living in. 

The New York version will be the one currently on display in the offices of  Mogens Lykketoft, who is the President of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York.

The large scale version that was also in Paris, will be installed in front of the Danish Parliament.



The above video with Uffe Elbæk from The Alternative about the plans for the installation in Copenhagen.

There will also be a Bike Parade on the Copenhagen Bike Lanes, lead on by the former Cultural Minister of Denmark, now leader of the new Green Danish party “The Alternative” Uffe Elbæk. He is also in town to Feel the Bern!

Other than driving on the Danish Biomega Bike on the Copenhagen Lanes, he will hold a speech on Union Square at 4pm, where Earth Day New York takes place annually. Here he will address our global climate challenges, and how we in a very concrete way can reduce our own carbon footprint, with inspiration from some of the conclusions made at COP21.

The Polar Bear CO2 Earth Day Ride is open for all and the participants are encouraged to wear clothes that in some ways can be seen as Polar Bearish. It is an initiative and Intentional Art Project in collaboration between CO2 Green Drive, Times-Up, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, The Treehouse Factory and Earth Day New York and is part of New York City’s “Car Free Earth Day” campaign.

The route in Downtown Manhattan will be in the Shape of CO2, and will be virtually “painted” with the help of a GPS APP from the Intentional Art Project CO2 Green Drive. The above image is from the Web Interface created by legendary APP programmer GILVADER. 

The idea behind POLAR BEAR EARTH DAY CO2 RIDE, is to create a intentional public interactive climate awareness performance in a public space, joining creative forces between various New York and Danish activists groups. The first version of the CO2 Green Drive took place in Copenhagen in 2009 with Electric Cars, in connection to the UN Climate Summit COP15. Since then, it has been performed globally over 30 times with Electric Cars, Bikes and Runners. (above drawing by Jesper Hyuk Larsen)

Earth Day New York takes place annually on Union Square. There are numerous environmental organizations present, with booths and green exhibitions, musical performances and various activities for spring longing New Yorkers. All participants in the RIDE, will when they arrive back from the route, be served organic food by Turkish celebrity chef Dilara Erbay from The Triangle Project.

Be part of the Polar Bear CO2 Earth Day Ride! Go to the Facebook event page HERE!