Press information
July 2008

Experience Copenhagen of the interwar period

Golden Days - Copenhagen's historical festival - presents for the eighth time an epoch-making and culturally rich period in the history of Copenhagen. From 5 - 21 September 2008 the festival focuses on the interwar period and with the subtitle functionalism, fascism and a free mind the stage is set for over 160 events spread out over 60 cultural institutions in the city.

This year's festival sets off the cultural trends, currents and events within music, fashion, design, architecture, art and politics in the 1920's and 1930's Copenhagen. A period marked by class struggle, crisis and unemployment, but also a time when innovation and idealisms were brought to the forefront on several levels.

A trendy metropolis

In the period between the two world wars Copenhagen becomes a modern metropolis. The city expands out into the suburbs, cars overtake horse carriages and between cyclists, traffic lights and neon lit commercials the trams hurry by taking Copenhageners to and from a blooming world of entertainment. Jazz, swing and dancing are the ingredients in a growing entertainment industry where the nude dancer Josephine Baker chocks the audience at the Scala Theatre. This year's Golden Days festival takes Copenhagen's role as a city, which gradually becomes a modern capital for modern people, as its starting point.

A festival for everyone

This year's festival programme is manifold and versatile as it reflects a period which points in many different directions with both new breakthroughs and depression. With something for all ages and all tastes, the Golden Days festival presents among other things a huge motor parade with the vehicles of the interwar period on Frederiksberg Allé to international exhibitions, talks, guided tours and new publications to a jazz party on the Royal Danish Theatre's stage, Stærekassen, with its Art Deco interior. The following three events are a part of the programme:

The strong human and the beautiful body: Leni Riefenstahl's documentary film "Olympia - Fest der Schönheit" about the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 portrays the interwar period and especially the Nazi fascination with the strong human and the beautiful body. Golden Days exclusively shows the cult propaganda film in Øbro Svømmehal (public swimming facility) and in this way connects the interwar period's worship of the body with one of the city's beautiful functionalist gems. The film will be accompanied by a live commentary by the Danish sport's poet and film artist Jørgen Leth.

Unleash desire: Surrealism was one of the most innovative movements within 20th century art. This was also the case in Denmark, where Wilhelm Freddie, Ejler Bille and Richard Mortensen complemented their international brothers such as Dalí, Míro, Ernst and Magritte. Arken gathers them all and others in a comprehensive exhibition, which with the title Triump of desire focuses on surrealism's eroticising view of everyday life and nature, which fundamentally shook the moral concepts of the period.

A tribute to Bispebjerg and Nordvest: The Danish architect Poul Heningsen educated the population to love the raw functionalism, which in the 20's and 30's was created by the period's best architects. Copenhagen's Nordvest quarter blossomed during the interwar period and today offers splendid and overlooked structures from a time when public housing was built with a clear conscience. The city's most overlooked quarter is made relevant and is explored both trough guided bike rides and talks paying tribute to the perfect dwelling and Nordvest's cultural oases.

Further information

Golden Days - Copenhagen's historical festival
Press Coordinator Thomas Bailey, tel. + 45 3525 3362, email: thomas@goldendays.dk 
Press photos: http://goldendays.dk/composite-1306.htm
www.goldendays.dk