The Copenhagen Report

Big, golden, kitsch and fake - the perfect welcome to a contemporary China exhibition.

Having lived for a little over a year in China, in Shanghai from late 2005 to late 2006, I was more then a little keen to check out the Made in China exhibition at the always fantastic Louisiania to see how it stood alongside my memories of the place.

If you want to know more about this experience, check outFor more on the experience of living in China, take a look at The Shanghai Shakedown, my Shanghai (and elsewhere around China) blog from last year. If you want my take on the political situation in China, always a popular issue, you could read this article about Democracy in China.

In my view, Denmark and China are actually an amusing study in contrasts, as the aspects of business and industry that drive Danish society - design, organisation, trustworthiness and innovation - are the sort of buzzwords that I would never ever ever use to describe China. Which means Danish companies have skill very useful to Chinese ones (and indeed plenty of them in Denmark are realising this and taking advantage of it).

To the images.



Here we have one of the classic images of China - the Yellow Mountains located near Huanshan, found on many a cheap Chinese restaurant wall the world over...and an image certainly mercifully not found anywhere in Louisiana's Made in China exhibition.

This one below was, however. Yes, look closely and you will realise that these indeed are real live (hairy) photographed asses from China...and, of course, not the Yellow Mountains.



Shanghai in a suitcase I found rather amusing and clever - from the Jin Mao tower to the Hangpu River and the Pearl Tower. Of course, even contemporary art can't keep pace with the frantic pace of change in China - the new Shanghai World Financial Centre, which has now surpassed the Jin Mao tower as the tallest building in Shanghai (and one of the tallest buildings in the world) does not appear.



Below - the symbol for 'demolision' - found on many a soon to be demolished areas around Beijing, Shanghai and countless other cities around China.







This pooch probably ate some of that Chinese dog food full of grade F meat...

Editor's Note:

I know I've been a bit lax about posting this month, but as it is July I think you can figure out why. Nonetheless, there are a bunch of half-written posts waiting to be finished, and still more that I haven't got to writing at all. Hopefully I'll get to them over the next days...before running off for more vacation for most of August.

Hey, it is the summer...

Cheers!
Tim

The rain may have (basically) stopped after Thursday, but the mud had nowhere to go. Nonetheless, it was a Roskilde Festival worthy of it's somewhat legendary reputation. The big names didn't really disappoint - with the exception of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which I will get to in a moment.

As is always the case, it was the unexpected bands that carried the festival. Because it's these bands that one fills the hours in between the big acts playing at the Orange stage.

This year, I'd highlight 3 in particular that stood out: Nortec Collective from Mexico (a fantastic take on electro music with a mexican twist - 5 guys on laptops, 2 horn players, an accoustic guitar player and an accordian player), Goose from Belgium (pure synthesiser focused energy - non stop bouncing for an hour), and 120 Days from Norway (extended electronic tracks with a deceiving amount of power and energy).


Nortec Collective at the Roskilde Festival

But the guy who arguably stole the show this year was Trentemøller. Coming somewhat out of nowhere in Denmark over the last 18 months, with his live performance at Roskilde on Friday evening, he cemented himself a reputation as a live performer of the highest caliber.

Which brings us to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Watching Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Keidis on screen, with black bags under his eyes, well, he looked rather tired. It was only later that I learned why - it seems the Chili Peppers played 3 shows in 24 hours, first in Paris yesterday evening, then earlier in the day in London, before hopping on a plane and arriving in Copenhagen for their 1 AM show at Roskilde. Sadly, it was their fans in Roskilde - and I am without question one of them - that suffered from this ambitious bit of scheduling on their part.

It was lackluster performance. No, I'm being kind. It was outright shitty and somewhat embarrassing and worse of all, standing watch it, it felt like we were all unwitting victims to some sort of inside joke the band was playing. A joke that went something like, 'if we pretend we are a bunch of teenagers jamming for 2 hours, will 50,000 people still cheer'. The second part of the joke was, 'how few songs can we squeeze into 2 hours'.

Here's how it went:

When they were playing their hits they were fantasic and the crowd was into it. Unfortunately, it was the space between the hits that was the problem. During these times, we were treated to an extended warm-up session. It was painful, being subjected to guitarist John Frusciante's endless guitar-wanking. The band sounded like a bunch of kids trying out instruments in a music shop. It would have been cool if this had a couple times during the show, but it happened between every single song they played. And by the end of the 2 hours, they could have easily played at least 5-6 songs more - and it's not like they have a shortage of songs to play! No question the 50,000 plus people watching would have responded energetically, if they had.

Instead, when the band left stage before the first encore, after feeling kind of like we had been stuck in very slow moving traffic that started in stopped for 2 hours - you'd move a bit, then things would crawl to a stop, and so on for the entire performance - it was a feeble cheer that the crowed mustered before the encore. The encore proved to be another couple guitar wanks, then 'Give it Away' now (again, excellent), followed by another 5 minute guitar wank to end the show (Anothony Keidis having already left the stage by this point).

In retrospect, I realise that the fact they opened the concert with a 3-minute jam session/guitar wank was actually a warning for what was to come.

And I know they can put on a great show. Last time they played Roskilde, they packed their set with pretty much all the biggest hits from their albums.

But as I said, Chili Peppers aside, it was an outstanding festival, especially given the weather conditions. The camping area may have been a sea of mud (that I all but avoided, opting instead to take the bus into Copenhagen each evening to sleep in the comfort of my own bed). You see, at a festival years ago I learned that human beings can live in mud, much to my surprise, and I didn't need a second lesson this year around.

By: Tim Anderson (timothyanderson2005@gmail.com)


That's The Killers, live onstage, if you were wondering...

Yesterday the music started at the Roskilde Festival. And the rain continued. I was there. I will sum it up in some detail below.

Mud mud mud rain rain.

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By the way, The Killers, playing at the outdoor Orange stage, were outstanding in spite of the mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain, mud mud mud rain, rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain mud mud mud rain rain, as were Arcade Fire.



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I can barely wait to get back to Roskilde this evening for more of it.

by: Tim Anderson (timothyanderson2005@gmail.com)



The lack of mountains in Denmark has always been a minor point of contention for me (or as one friend of mine put it, 'a real country has mountains'). That said, a 'real country' should also have sea - preferably a lot of it. And Denmark certainly has that.

There are no shortage of places in Denmark to get a good look at it - along with a whiff of deliciously salty sea air.

On the other hand as you watch the sea someplace or other in Denmark, if you are hungry, haven't brought your own lunch and are looking for more than a questionable Danish pølser (hot dog) to fill your stomach with as the sea breeze sweeps through your hair, well, the choices do drop off a bit.

However, one option that can be counted on, would be Odden Havn (Odden Harbour) up on Sjællands Odde. It's not quite just another of the charming but countless Danish harbour towns that exist.

Aside from the pleasant harbour, as home to unpretentious Odden Fisk (Odde Fish), a wonderfully designed pier to wander along, and being only stone's throw (if you've got a good arm...) from one of Denmark's famous design relics - the fiskerøgeri (fish smoke house) from 1943 of (deceased) Danish designer Arne Jacobsen - it makes for a pleasant afternoon car trip.


the exterior doesn't give a hint of the magnificent fish and fish dishes being sold inside...


maybe the funkiest pier in Denmark...walking encouraged naturally


Arne Jacobsen's iconic smoked fish factory today...


Arne's smoke house back in the day (circa 1943)

And the scenery around Sjaellands Odde is well worth the drive, at least on a sunny day.


an iconic image of Denmark...

But oh, those tasty fish! And it's most definitely a place to stop if you're on your way to the ferry to Jutland, the one departing from the tip of Sjaellands Odde.