Forget Broadway because all August Miss Copenhagen is polishing her rusty nails and transforming her rickety alleyways and timeworn buildings into a month-long, living, breathing stage production. Over 100 performances and installations will enthrall locals and tourists alike, infusing the quaint polis with creative energy and dramatic pizzazz.
Aptly entitled Metropolis, the Copenhagen International Theatre aims to turn the public spaces within Copenhagen into artistic alcoves, presenting a variety of theatre-based experiences in the city streets. Without stooping to the level of rowdy street performance, Metropolis rears artistic adaptations of significant buildings, squares and roads. These dramatic happenings include the staging of everyday life and feature artists working within local groups in creative inner city developments.
This theatrical bounty will be accented with displays of contemporary artwork. You can expect to behold grand installations arranged in abandoned buildings, exhibitions in mobile, temporary venues, and enriching excursions to the parameters of the city. Many of the city streets will be closed in order to make place for new sites hosting short films and sound and light projections.
Holding true to all traditional fine-art operations, a topical concept must be at the core of such a huge enterprise. Affirmatively this Copenhagen biennale is rendered on the notion of Metropolis (as from this year onward more than 50 percent of the world’s populace exists in cities - pretty darn topical indeed). Ultimately, the city is in a constant state of flux, consequently resulting in urban environments becoming creative cities, hybrid-cities, event-cities and so on. By turning the city into a stage, and vice-versa, you use the city itself as a platform to which it (the city) is also the subject - a perfectly dualistic topic sweetly displaying the diversity and contradictions of the metropolis.
Metropolis opens with bravura, staging a dazzling, yet poetic firework show at the Copenhagen lakes on Saturday at 21:30 entitled Waterfools. This performance is generated by the French street theatre company Ilotopie and very may well be the biggest outdoor art event of the season. Bring the entire family as there will be enough space for up to 10,000 people along the banks of Sortedams Søen. Due to the fact that most events take place in public spaces many of them will be free of charge, including Waterfools.
This certainly will be one of Europe’s most groundbreaking festivals of urban art and performance. The budget set for Metropolis is nearly 7 million kroner and this year it will be showcasing 21 Danish and international productions. That’s 21 reasons to get out and delight in this unique metropolitan experience.
Top Picks:
Waterfools (staging on water)
Sortedams Søen (the lakes), Cph; Saturday 21:30-22:15; free adm
Don’t miss the grand opening of Metropolis, an imaginative and enchanting performance of fireworks on water.
Blind Spot (city walk)
Meeting point at Nørreport Station, Nørre Voldgade 13, Cph K; Mon-Thu & 9 August, 19:00; 125kr/63kr
Witness a fusion of ritual with real life and the majestic with the minimal in a staged dance pilgrimage from the outer Nørrebro to the sanctuary of the inner city.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Submarine Ballet (staging on water)
Sailing from Bryggebroen through Islands Brygge, Sorte Diamant , Skuespilhuset and Amaliehaven; 7 & 8 August, 22:00; free adm
Surreal visions of dance performance mariners, light, fire and a floating orchestra.
Continuous City (multimedia performance)
MusikTeatret Abertslund, Bibliotekstorvet 1-3, Albertslund; 11-13 August, 20:00; 165kr/83kr
A visually superb show that masterfully combines performance with text, video, sound and architecture.
Moscow (film and live classical music)
Havnegade 50 Cph K; 18 August at 21:00, 19 & 20 August at 18:00 & 21:00; 165kr/83kr
Set in a vacant circus tent, a string orchestra provides an eerie soundtrack for a multi-screen film projected upon the tent interior.
Angela Andersen - The Copenhagen Post