Past Lectures & Literary Events
2012
Collecting the Swedish Landscape Then & Now:
A Conversation with Michelle Facos & David Werner
Thursday, January 12, 2012, 6:30 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
Focusing on Swedish paintings in Luminous Modernism, scholar Michelle Facos and collector David Werner will discuss the role played by landscape painting in forging a collective Swedish identity circa 1900 and the appeal of Swedish landscape painting for collectors then and now.
Michelle Facos is Professor of the History of Art at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is an internationally-recognized expert on Swedish painting and has taught Scandinavian art at Växjö University and Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany. A contributor to the Luminous Modernism catalogue, her book Nationalism and the Nordic Imagination: Swedish Art of the 1890s (1998) investigates Swedish nature, nationalism, and art in the years around 1900, and her books Symbolist Art in Context (2009) and An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art (2011) incorporate Scandinavian art into mainstream European movements.
David Werner is a practicing ophthalmologist with a sub specialty in pediatric ophthalmology. He has been a collector of Scandinavian art for the last fifteen years with an emphasis on both the decorative and fine arts from 1880 to 1920. He is president of the advisory board for the Palmer Museum of Art in State College, Pennsylvania and is on the board of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has also lectured on Scandinavian art for Crystal Cruises.
Art in Finland, 1912
Lecture by Janet Rauscher, Princeton University Art Museum
Thursday, January 19, 2012, 6:30 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
Join Janet Rauscher for a fascinating investigation of the dynamic art world and birth of modernism in Finland in the first decades of the 20th century. Rauscher has served as an Editor at the High Museum of Art, Chief Curator of the Nordic Heritage Museum and Associate Instructor at Indiana University at Bloomington. She is currently an Associate Editor at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Universal Truths and Local Fictions: Nordic Art on the Edge
Lecture by Curator Dr. Patricia Berman
Thursday, January 26, 2012, 6:30 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
Focusing on selected works in the Luminous Modernism exhibition, this lecture will explore the tensions between internationalism and national and regional identities that characterized Nordic art at the turn of last century.
2011
Copenhagen Noir Book Discussion
Tuesday, February 22, 6:30 pm
FREE
Joining Rome, Paris, Istanbul, London, and Dublin as European hosts for publisher Akashic’s Noir series, Copenhagen Noir features brand-new stories from a top-notch selection of Danish writers, with several Norwegian and Swedish writers also included. This volume definitively reveals why Scandinavian crime fiction has come to be so popular across the world. The panel includes Naja Marie Aidt, Danish lyricist and short story author, and Kristina Stoltz, writer, and is moderated by Hirsh Sawhney, associate editor at Wasafiri Magazine and contributing editor for The Brooklyn Rail.
Copenhagen Noir includes brand-new stories by Naja Marie Aidt, Jonas T. Bengtsson, Helle Helle, Christian Dorph, and Simon Pasternak, Susanne Staun, Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, Klaus Rifbjerg, Gretelise Holm, Georg Ursin, Kristian Lundberg, Kristina Stoltz, Seyit Öztürk, Benn Q. Holm, and Gunnar Staalesen.
Northwave: A Survey of Video Art in the Nordic Countries:
Talk by Lorella Scacco with Performance by Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen
Tuesday, March 1, 6:30 pm
FREE
Northwave: A Survey of Video Art in Nordic Countries (Silvana Editoriale, 2009) offers a broad survey of developments video art from the Nordic countries from the 60s until nowadays and the poetics developed by artists. Particular attention was given to artists who have worked since the 90s. After author Lorella Scacco’s talk, Danish-Filipino artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen will stage a performance of her work Mis United.
The book is bilingual (Italian and English) and is divided into two parts: an essay that investigates the early video experiments of the 60s and 80s in the five Nordic countries and then goes to the “Nordic Miracle” that began in the 90s, describing the issues, trends and work of the artists. The second part consists of a series of biographical profiles illustrating the works and ideas of the individual artists that make this book a survey not only of video art but also of recent artistic developments in the Nordic countries in the broader sense.
Among the artists included in the book are Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lauri Astala, Johanna Billing, Elina Brotherus, Jonas Dahlberg, Maria Friberg, Marit Følstad, Siri Hermansen, Laura Horelli, Henrik Håkansson, Jesper Just, Eva Koch, Ragnar Kjartansson, Annika Larsson, Petra Lindholm, Anu Pennanen, Rúrí, Lars Siltberg, Mika Taanila, Salla Tykkä, Gitte Villesen, Magnus Wallin and Knut Åsdam.
Mis United is a musical art tragedy by Rasmussen about a complex contemporary character called Mis United, constantly prepared to change directions and with no solid ground under her feet. Lilibeth will perform 6 new songs that shift from punk to rock and hip-hop, like the ever changing Mis United. Rasmussen has written the lyrics to the songs and composed the music together with the Danish composer Anders Christophersen and recorded the music in a studio in Copenhagen.
Art critic and curator Lorella Scacco has edited monographs and exhibition catalogues of famous Italian and international artists, especially of recent generations. Over the past fifteen years she has curated numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. She collaborated with various public institutions and private foundations, in Italy, including the Venice Biennale, VIU Venice International University, Triennale and Sforzesco Castle in Milan, MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome, ICE Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, Italian Ministry Heritage and Culture, and abroad, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, the Foundation Fritt Ord and Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Tampere Art Museum, and NORDEN Council of Nordic Ministers.
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was born in 1970 in Manila, the Philippines. In 1978 her family moved to her father’s home place Stevns, Denmark. Cuenca primarily engages in video and performance art. Taking her own Danish-Filipino background as a point of departure, Cuenca gathers, adapts, and universalizes her narratives in both a critical and humorous approach in regards to issues such as identity, culture, religion, gender, and social relations. Her productions involve scripted texts/songs; composed music as well as intricate visual elements that include set design and costumes.
Cuenca Rasmussen’s solo exhibitions includes The Heidelberg Kunstverein in 2010, Ego Show at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen in 2006, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö in 2007 and Woman in the Rhythm at the Gävle Konstcentrum, Gãvle in 2006. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and performance venues worldwide including: Performa2009 in New York City with the piece “The Present doesn't exist in my Mind and Future is already far behind.” In 2010 the performance was re-staged at Hélio Oititica in Rio de Janiero, at Verbo, Galeria Vermelho in São Paulo, The Living Room Art in Public Spaces in Auckland City, Location One in New York City, Statens Museum for Kunst and Aros in Denmark.
ASF Centennial Literary Series:
Northern Influences: Americans Look at Great Nordic Writers
Mondays @ 6:30 pm, March 21
Additional panels for Halldór Laxness, Knut Hamsun, and August Strindberg TBA
FREE
This spring begins a series of panel discussions that emphasize the influence of Nordic literature. American authors, dramatists, critics, and their guests discuss giants of Nordic literature from an American perspective. Rooted in dramatic readings, reflections, and lively discussion, these literary evenings allow readers of today a new window into the lives and characters behind the work of a spectrum of Nordic literary geniuses.
Tove Jansson, the Novelist
March 21
The New York Review of Books Classics series has published three novels for adults by Tove Jansson: The Summer Book, The True Deceiver, and most recently Fair Play. Sophia Jansson in conversation with translator Thomas Teal and Aili Flint, with Tuomas Hiltunen moderating. Readings from the novels by actors Taina Elg and Heli Sirviö. Introduction by Ambassador Ritva Jolkkonen, Consul General of Finland in New York.
Karen Blixen
April 4
In an exciting literary soiree, New Yorker writer Judith Thurman, author of Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller teams up with her friend the Danish actress and Jade Cat author Suzanne Brøgger to discuss their joint fascination with the life and work of the great Danish writer Karen Blixen, best known for Out of Africa. The evening will include footage of Blixen’s visits to New York in the late 1950s.
Presented in association with The American-Scandinavian Society of New York.
Curtis L. Carlson Centennial Lecture Series
Monday, April 11 & Monday, May 16, 7 pm
BY INVITATION, please call for details
The Curtis L. Carlson Distinguished Lecture Series was created by the Carlson Family Foundation to support public discourse on important policy issues, furthering ASF’s mission to serve as a leading center for cultural exchange. In honor of the ASF Centennial, the 2011 lecture series features Nobel Peace Prize laureates who represent the highest ideals of service to mankind.
Each will speak for roughly 20 minutes, followed by question and answer sessions with the audience.
Martti Ahtisaari, Former President of the Republic of Finland
April 11
Poverty and Peace
Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary-General
May 16
The 7th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
April 25 through May 1, 2011
Schedule & times vary, please see below
All programs at Scandinavia House are free & open to the public; no reservations are necessary
The 2011 PEN World Voices Festival will be held at venues throughout New York City and will focus on the freedom of expression and the international fellowship of writers. This annual showcase of writers from all over the world consists of several days of public panels, literary conversations, readings, and tributes. By convening international writers to discuss their relationships to their public and private selves, PEN World Voices aims to expand the dialogue on essential aspects of the human experience that promises to play a crucial role in the interactions of nations, peoples, and individuals for the foreseeable future.
Scandinavia House joins the festival as a co-sponsor and will host a series of programs. Please visit www.pen.org for schedule and more details.
Writing in a Majority/Minority Cultural Context:
Local Identity vs. a Broader Nation
Wednesday, April 27, 4-5:30
Pulled between calls for regional autonomy versus demands for a stronger federation, regions of the world such as Catalonia, Georgia and Québec tackle questions of cultural identity every day. Join writers from these “minority/majority nations” as they discuss how their multiple identities, regional, national and global, inform the choices they make in their creative work.
Co-sponsored by Scandinavia House, Words Without Borders, and the Blue Metropolis Foundation.
Participants:
Nadine Bismuth
Nicolas Dickner
Dominique Fortier
Mykola Riabchuk
Teresa Solana
Moderated by Susan Harris
Nadine Bismuth’s first book, Les gens fidèles ne font pas les nouvelles (1999), received the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Prix Adrienne-Choquette. She is also the author of the novel Scrapbook (2004) and the collection of short stories Are You Married to a Psychopath (2009), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. She also writes for television and movies. She lives in Montréal.
Nicolas Dickner (b. 1972) is the author of two collections of short stories and the novel Nikolski, which won the 2005 Anne-Hébert prize, among others, and was translated into English in 2010. His latest novel, Apocalypse for Beginners, was published in 2009. He currently lives in Montréal, where he is a columnist and writer for the alternative weekly newspaper Voir.
Dominique Fortier is an editor and translator. Fortier is the author of Les Larmes de saint Laurent and On the Proper Use of Stars. She lives in Montréal.
Mykola Riabchuk is a senior research associate at the Ukrainian Centre for Cultural Studies in Kiev. He is also a member of the editorial board of Krytyka magazine and the Journal of South Eastern Europe. Riabchuk has published poetry, short stories, collections of literary criticism, and essays, including Mrs. Simpson’s Favorite Gun (2009) and Postcolonial Syndrome (2011). His works were translated into eighteen European languages and have been distinguished with many awards, including a Polish-Ukrainian Capitula Award, the Antonovych Prize, and Bene merito.
Teresa Solana (b. 1962) is a translator from Barcelona. She directed the National Translation Centre in Spain for seven years. Now she devotes her time to writing her own novels and translating them into Spanish. A Not So Perfect Crime, her first novel, won the 2007 Brigada 21 Prize for best noir in Catalan, and A Shortcut to Paradise, her second, was short-listed for the 2008 Salambó Prize for best novel in Catalan. Her works have been translated into several languages.
Moderator:
Susan Harris is the editor of Words Without Borders. With Ilya Kaminsky, she is the co-editor of the most recent Words Without Borders anthology, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
Translating America
Friday, April 29, 12-1:30 pm
The quest for authenticity and idiosyncrasy would seem to place American writers beyond translation. Yet their popularity abroad – equaled only by loathing for our foreign policy – has sometimes dwarfed their readership at home and reshaped the global literary landscape. Here to discuss how this encounter has influenced their writing and their culture are four authors who have translated canonical American works: Huckleberry Finn, The Bell Jar, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Nickel and Dimed.
Co-sponsored by Scandinavia House
Participants:
Andrej Blatnik
Emmanuelle Ertel
Asaf Schurr
Sandro Veronesi
Moderated by A.M. Homes
Andrej Blatnik (b. 1963) is a Slovenian author of several works of fiction and criticism. He is the president of the jury of the Vilenica International Literary Prize. Blatnik has translated the work of Sylvia Plath and Paul Bowles, among others. His collection of short stories, Skinswaps, was translated into English in 1998.
Emmanuelle Ertel is a professor of French at New York University and a literary translator. Her translations of American novels into French include Louis Begley’s The Man Who Was Late and As Max Saw It, Rick Moody’s The Black Veil, and Tom Perrotta’s Little Children.
Asaf Schurr (b. 1976) is a translator, editor and book critic living in Jerusalem. He has received the Bernstein Prize, the Minister of Culture Prize for Amram, and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Motti. Motti will be published in English by Dalkey Archive Press in the spring of 2011.
Sandro Veronesi (b. 1959) is an Italian novelist, essayist, and journalist. He has published seven novels, one collection of poetry and five non-fiction books. The Force of the Past won the Viareggio-Repaci Prize and the Campiello Prize and was a Zerilli-Marimo finalist. In 2005, he won the Strega Prize for Quiet Chaos. Veronesi now lives in Rome.
Moderator:
A.M. Homes is the author of This Book Will Save Your Life (2006), Music for Torching (2000), Things You Should Know (2003), and The Safety of Objects (2003) among many others. She has received numerous awards, including Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, NYFA, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Homes is a contributor to Vanity Fair, BOMB, and other publications. She currently lives in New York City.
The Great Global Book Swap
Friday, April 29, 2-3:30 pm
Imagine you are invited to a great global book swap and have to bring just one beloved book originally written in a foreign tongue: what would it be? Join five eminent writers who have trotted the globe and lived everywhere from Ireland to India, Latvia to Sudan, for a reading and a talk about the works of translation that enriched and changed their lives.
Co-sponsored by Scandinavia House
Participants:
Leila Aboulela
Mario Bellatín
David Bezmozgis
Fintan O’Toole
Participating moderator:
Colum McCann
Leila Aboulela is the first recipient of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is the author of The Translator, one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of the Year, and Minaret – both long-listed for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her collection of short stories, Coloured Lights, was short-listed for the Macmillan Silver PEN Award, and her new novel, Lyrics Alley, came out in March 2011. She grew up in Khartoum, lived much of her adult life in Scotland, and now lives in Doha, Qatar.
Mario Bellatín is a Mexican author of the short novels Mujeres de sal, Canon perpetuo, Efecto invernadero, Damas chinas, and Poeta ciego. His 1999 novella Salón de belleza (Beauty Salon) received huge praise and wide recognition. In 2009, City Lights published the first English translation of Beauty Salon to major acclaim, helping to establish broad recognition of his writing in the United States.
Nick Bertozzi is the author of The Salon (2007), a graphic murder mystery that begins at the birth of Cubism in Paris. He also collaborated with Jason Lutes on Houdini: The Handcuff King (2007), the first of Hyperion/CCS’s cartoon-biographies. This year, he published Lewis & Clark (2011) to rave reviews, prompting critic John Hodgman to write: “Bertozzi captures in pictures the Lewis and Clark expedition as no dumb book of prose ever could.” He has taught at Rhode Island School of Design and currently teaches cartooning at School of Visual Arts.
Fintan O’Toole is a columnist and assistant editor at The Irish Times. He has also been a drama critic for the New York Daily News and The Sunday Tribune. An historical and political commentator, O’Toole’s most recent book is Enough is Enough: How to Build a New Republic (Faber and Faber, 2010).
Moderator:
Colum McCann is the author of the 2009 National Book Award winner for fiction, Let the Great World Spin. He has written four other novels, as well as two critically acclaimed short-story collections. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and The Paris Review, he lives in New York City.
Catalan Literature’s Modern Tradition
Friday, April 29, 4-5:30 pm
One of the world’s most beautiful romance languages, Catalan has a rich literary trove unknown to most of the English-speaking world. A discussion of seminal twentieth-century works, such as Llorenc Villalonga’s The Doll’s Room and Josep Pla’s The Gray Notebook, led by renowned Catalan literary historians and translators, will show you a treasure of literature you’ll wish you’d found sooner.
Co-sponsored by Dalkey Archive Press and New York Review of Book Classics.
Participants:
Enric Bou
Peter Bush
Teresa Solana
Mary Ann Newman
Introduced by
Aleksandar Hemon
Enric Bou, the professor and chair of Hispanic studies at Brown University, specializes in twentieth-century Spanish Peninsular and Catalan literature. His most recent works include Panorama crític de la literatura catalana (2 vols. 2009-2010), Pedro Salinas: Complete Works II: Complete Essays (2007), and Daliccionario: Objetos, mitos y símbolos de Salvador Dalí (2004). In 2000, he was the editor of the Nou diccionari 62 de la literature catalana. The Barcelona-native taught at Wellesley College for seven years and is a recipient of three Ford Foundation Grants and the Josep Vallverdú Prize for Literary Essay.
Peter Bush, a literary translator living in Barcelona, is the former director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. Past translations from Catalan include Quim Monzó’s The Enormity of the Tragedy and Najat El Hachmi’s The Last Patriarch. His translations of Monzó’s Guadalajara, Juan Goytisolo’s Níjar Country, Exiled from Almost Everywhere, and Teresa Solana’s A Shortcut to Paradise were published in 2011.
Teresa Solana (b. 1962) is a translator from Barcelona. She directed the National Translation Centre in Spain for seven years. Now she devotes her time to writing her own novels and translating them into Spanish. A Not So Perfect Crime, her first novel, won the 2007 Brigada 21 Prize for best noir in Catalan, and A Shortcut to Paradise, her second, was short-listed for the 2008 Salambó Prize for best novel in Catalan. Her works have been translated into several languages.
Mary Ann Newman is the director of the Catalan Center at New York University, an affiliate of the Institut Ramon Llull. She is a translator, editor, and occasionally writes about Catalan culture. She has translated the works of authors such as Quim Monzó, Xavier Rubert de Ventós, Joan Maragall, and Narcis Comadira.
Introduced by
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also written three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno (2001), Nowhere Man (2004), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Love and Obstacles (Riverhead, 2010). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004.
New Finnish Design: SCENARIOS - A Story about what Happened in the Future
Lunchtime Talk by Curator Sari Anttonen
Monday, May 9, 12-1 pm
Free admission
New Finnish Design SCENARIOS - A Story about what Happened in the Future will be held in the Meatpacking District May 12-17, 2011 during the 24th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City.
SCENARIOS offers an inspirational look at the designers, design studios, manufacturers, and products that are shaping the landscape of modern Finnish design, while simultaneously exposing the country’s functional and beautiful products to a wider audience.
SCENARIOS includes an exhibition, a student workshop, a cafeteria serving Nordic delicacies by FIKA espresso bar, a pop-up store selling Finnish design items, a lounge area that features lectures and other cultural programming, and export training for participants organized in Helsinki, Finland already in March.
Curated by award-winning interior architect and furniture designer Sari Anttonen, the multilayered SCENARIOS event highlights a wide array of the latest items and concepts by a selected group of Finnish design companies, individual designers and design studios. In addition to the furniture, lighting fixtures, and other interior design objects presented in the show; illustrated stories of the early years of the participating companies allow visitors to familiarize themselves with the ideas, inspirations, and processes traditionally found at the heart of Finnish design. The presentations are extended to also cover the future visions through texts, as well as through ideas and sketches born during the event.
For more information about New Finnish Design SCENARIOS - A Story about what Happened in the Future, please visit their website.
New Finnish Design SCENARIOS—A Story about what Happened in the Future is produced by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the Consulate General of Finland in New York, with the support of Design Forum Finland. Visual identity is by Ahonen & Lamberg. SCENARIOS is an official satellite event of the international World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project.
The event is organized in collaboration with the Meatpacking District Improvement Association in conjunction with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and New York Design Week. SCENARIOS is supported by Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, National Council for Design, Visit Finland, and Graphic Concrete, with additional support for video production from the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.
Talk by Curator Robert Storr
Wednesday, May 11, 6:30 pm
Free admission
North by New York: New Nordic Art co-curator Robert Storr will speak about the works included in the exhibition, as well as the process involved in gathering it.
Painter, critic, curator, and art historian Robert Storr has been Dean of the Yale School of Art since 2006. Prior to this he was professor of Modern Art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts (2002-2006) and senior curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (1990-2002). At MoMA, Mr. Storr organized more than twenty exhibitions-including seminal retrospectives of Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman (with Tate Gallery, London), Chuck Close, Tony Smith, and Elizabeth Murray-and was coordinator of Projects, the Museum’s exhibition series devoted to the work of contemporary artists. He was also director of the 2007 Venice Biennale.
The author of numerous monographs and catalogues, Mr. Storr is a contributing editor at Art in America and writes frequently for art press, Frieze, Artforum, and other publications.
Talk by Curator Robert Storr
Tuesday, July 19, 6:30 pm
Free admission
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) presents a lecture by internationally renowned scholar and critic Robert Storr on North by New York: New Nordic Art, a focused survey of contemporary Scandinavian art.
Mr. Storr—curator of North by New York with independent scholar and curator Francesca Pietropaolo—will discuss the process of creating the exhibition and the ways in which it illuminates the extraordinary diversity of medium, content, and artistic vision that informs Scandinavian art today.
The exhibition will be open for viewing both before and after the talk. A cocktail reception on the terrace of Scandinavia House will follow, enabling conversation with Mr. Storr and ASF President Edward P. Gallagher.
Painter, critic, curator, and art historian Robert Storr has been Dean of the Yale School of Art since 2006. Prior to this he was professor of Modern Art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and senior curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. At MoMA, Mr. Storr organized more than twenty exhibitions and was coordinator of Projects, the Museum’s exhibition series devoted to the work of contemporary artists. He was also director of the 2007 Venice Biennale. The author of numerous monographs and catalogues, Mr. Storr is a contributing editor at Art in America and writes frequently for art press, Frieze, Artforum, and other publications.
Curtis L. Carlson Centennial Lecture Series
Monday, October 3, 5:30 pm
Free admission, but reservations are required. Please RSVP to claire@amscan.org by Wednesday, September 28.
The Curtis L. Carlson Distinguished Lecture series was created by the Carlson Family Foundation to support public discourse on important policy issues. In honor of the ASF Centennial, the lecture series features Nobel Prize laureates who represent the highest ideals of service to mankind. The spring 2011 installments of this series featured Martti Ahtisaari, former President of the Republic of Finland and Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Science as an Instrument for Peace
Dr. Torsten Wiesel
October 3
It is difficult to talk about peace without talking about war. But how is it possible to have a serious discussion about science and peace in the confused world in which we live? Daily we learn about killings in different wars and insurrections, attacks and madness of suicide bombers, the collapse of the world economy, global warming, and statistics showing that nearly half of the world population lives on less than $2 a day.
As a child in Sweden in the 1930s, Dr. Wiesel witnessed the events that led to the Second World War and observed the increasing tensions among the leaders and the people of different countries. As a neuroscientist now, he is particularly conscious of the potential contributions to the prevention of war that can be made through better understanding of how the mind works and how it influences behavior – especially as it relates to aggression and violence. By fostering positive alliances across races, cultures, and religions, tensions and barriers that could otherwise lead to war can be reduced. In the world of science, this interaction occurs naturally because the language of science crosses races, cultures, and religions. Touching upon specific examples of scientists whose work has served the cause of peace, Wiesel’s talk will be devoted to the ways in which science can be an instrument of peace.
ASF Members Only Lecture:
The 1912 Scandinavian Exhibition: Modern Art before the Armory Show
Lecture by Curator Dr. Patricia Berman
Saturday, October 22, 4 pm
Free admission
This lecture places the 1912 exhibition of modern Scandinavian art in historical context, examining the works that were displayed and the critical reaction to them. In addition, it discusses this exhibition in relation to other important exhibitions of modern art in the United States, from the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago to the 1913 Armory Exhibition in New York.
Hammershøi & His Contemporaries
Lecture by Dr. Kasper Monrad, Statens Museum for Kunst
Saturday, October 29, 2 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
Join leading art historian and scholar Dr. Kasper Monrad for a stimulating talk on the work of Danish master Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916), one of the most well-known and important Scandinavian painters of the late 19th century. Engage more deeply with a selection of his masterpieces on exclusive loan to the ASF from a private collection. Dr. Monrad will guide audiences through Hammershøi's unique, early modernist paintings - from austere and intimate interior scenes to calm and meditative landscapes - while exploring the dual sense of immobile calm and indefinable tension characteristic of the artist's oeuvre.
The Young Radical at 50: Edvard Munch in 1913
Lecture by Curator Dr. Patricia Berman
Thursday, November 17, 6:30 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
In the years 1912-1913, Edvard Munch (1863-1944), already a celebrated artist throughout Europe, first exhibited in North America in the Scandinavian Exhibition sponsored by the American-Scandinavian Foundation. In addition, he was designated one of modernism’s great masters in Germany, worked on a monumental mural project in Kristiania, and developed new techniques that reanimated his art. This lecture examines this critical period in the artist’s career.
2010
Jean Sibelius: A Composer’s Life and the Awakening of Finland
Lecture by Dr. Glenda Goss
Tuesday, February 23, 6:30 pm
$10 ($8 ASF Members; FREE to students with a valid ID)
Composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) came to prominence during Finland’s golden age of the arts. The timing was no coincidence, for Sibelius helped to shape that golden era while in turn being shaped by it. In her talk, Dr. Glenda Dawn Goss, teaches at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and a former Professor of Musicology at the University of Georgia, will present this national creative tide in the context of Nordic cultural currents and will discuss the vital importance of the wider Nordic world for the creation of that display. The events of Finland’s golden age were fueled by wider geo-political forces in the course of which Finland came under Russian control after centuries of being a part of Sweden. The push and pull of east and west spurred Sibelius and his contemporaries to create a dazzling outpouring of music, art, drama, and literature that endowed Finns with a sense of pride, awakened them to their unique heritage, and defined what it meant to be Finnish.
Should Gender Equality be Mandated?
Added Seminar & Panel Discussion
Monday, March 1, 12-2:30 pm
FREE, but reservations are required
Please RSVP to migs@mfa.no
Is government involvement needed to secure gender equality or are corporations already leading the way? Have the principles of gender equality been established or does the debate need to continue? Audun Lysbakken, Norwegian Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, addresses these topics in a key note address and seminar, with a panel discussion moderated by Michael Kimmel, Stony Brook University.
Hosted by The Norwegian Consulate General in New York, The New York Women’s Forum, Catalyst, and Innovation Norway.
Chronic Heart Failure: A Comparison Between Sweden & the United States
Lecture by Jan Mårtensson
Tuesday, March 2, 6:30 pm
FREE, no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come first-served
Jan Mårtensson, visiting ASF scholar and Associate Professor of Nursing from the School of Health Sciences and Supervisor at the Primary Care Research and Development Unit in Jönköping, Sweden, compares follow-up care for heart disease patients in Sweden and the United States. Mårtensson also highlights the most important reforms that must be accomplished in heart disease and health care in the near future. Despite a continuing favorable trend in the occurrence of most cardiovascular diseases, heart failure is a significant and growing public health problem. More than 95% of admissions and days of hospitalization involve persons over 65 years of age. In Sweden this group of patients accounts for approximately 20% of all medical care events and 30% of all days of care due to heart disease. In the U.S. patients with heart failure account for about one-tenth of the Medicare population but over one-third of all Medicare spending, presenting an unsustainable burden as the population ages and the demand for in-hospital care increases.
The American Girl
Reading & book talk with Monika Fagerholm
Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 pm
FREE, no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come first-served
In 1969, a young American girl named Eddie de Wire travels from Coney Island to the swampy coast of Finland and drowns in a marsh while wearing a red plastic raincoat, her premature death becoming part of local folklore. As her mythology builds, two imaginative and ferociously devoted young friends—Sandra and Doris, each with their own troubled history—search for hidden meaning and answers to Eddie’s demise. The girls construct their own world, their own language, and their own rules. But playing adult games has adult consequences, and what begins as two girls striking matches leads to an inferno that threatens to consume them and tear their worlds apart.
Gyrating from the swinging 60s to the mod early 70s, this complex narrative is kept on track by Fagerholm’s gifts as a storyteller. Part mysterious gothic saga, part chronicle of an era, and part a portrait of youth on the cusp of sexual awakening, The American Girl is a bewitching glimpse into the human psyche.
Already an international phenomenon, The American Girl from Scandinavian novelist Monika Fagerholm is simply unforgettable. A number one bestseller in Sweden and Finland, it has sold more than 200,000 copies to date, and has been sold in 13 countries. It is the recipient of the premier literary award in Sweden—The August Prize, as well as The Aniara Prize and The Gothenburg Post Award, and has been short-listed for The International IMPAC Literary Award.
Monika Fagerholm, one of Scandinavia’s most renowned authors, was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1961 and belongs to the Swedish-speaking community in Finland. Her much praised first novel, Wonderful Women by the Sea (New Press, 1997), won numerous awards, was short-listed for both the August Prize and the Finlandia Prize, and was made into a motion picture. With the publication of Diva in 1998, Fagerholm stirred up a cult-like following across Scandinavia and was awarded The Swedish Literature Society Award and Nyland’s Art Award.
The Viking in the Wheatfield: A Scientist’s Struggle to Preserve the World’s Harvest
Lecture & reading with Susan Dworkin
Tuesday, March 16, 6:30 pm
FREE, no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come first-served
New York City author and journalist Susan Dworkin’s newest book takes the reader into the world of Bent Skovmand (1945-2007), a brilliant Danish plant scientist who fought to preserve and expand the world’s wheat supply. For 35 years Skovmand collected, multiplied, and documented the world’s wheat varieties, helping to protect the harvest against mutant plagues and revolutionary climate change. Before his untimely death in 2007, he worked to develop the so-called “Doomsday Vault” on Norway’s Arctic border where nations store their crop seeds under tons of ice and rock as insurance against catastrophe.
In an era when multinational corporations and governments often jealously guard breeding patents and information, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange, as a service to breeders and farmers everywhere. When nations locked up their seeds, he fought to keep germplasm an internationally available public good. The Viking in the Wheatfield goes to the heart of the struggle to save the harvest, one seed at a time. Skovmand’s life casts a bright and welcome light on an agricultural sector – the international seed banks – upon which we are all crucially dependent and about which most of us know far too little. As Bent Skovmand often told visitors to his collection, “If the seeds disappear, so could your food. So could you.”
Dworkin has written several biographies, including The Nazi Officer’s Wife, and her articles have appeared in Ms., Ladies’ Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and numerous other magazines. Her fascination with agriculture dates from early stints at the United States Department of Agriculture and as a journalist covering aid programs in the Middle East. She lives in New York City and the Berkshires.
Fashion & Films
Thursday, March 11 & Thursday, March 18, both @ 6:30 pm
$9 ($6 ASF Members)
The moving image has represented and (re)interpreted fashion as a concept, an industry and as a cultural form since its inception. Subtly but strongly, fashion exists in the interstices of film aesthetics, possessing the ability to not only enhance a character’s persona and the drama of life, but also the capability to encourage critical response with regard to a film’s content, position in society, and relation to the human experience.
Scandinavia House presents a miniseries of screenings and lectures that closely examine fashion’s role in two Swedish films – Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night/Sommarnattens leende (1955) and Arne Mattsson’s Mannequin in Red/Mannekäng i rött (1958).
Smiles of a Summer Night/Sommarnattens leende
Film screening with lecture by Astrid Söderbergh Widding
Thursday, March 11, 6:30 pm
Directed by Ingmar Bergman (1955). The 1956 prize-winning comedy Smiles of a Summer Night ushered in an international audience for director Ingmar Bergman. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, four women and four men attempt to juggle the laws of attraction amidst their daily bourgeois life. When a weekend in the country brings them all face to face, the women ally to force the men’s hands in their matters of the heart, exposing their pretensions and insecurities along the way. Chock full of flirtatious propositions and sharp-witted wisdom, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of film history’s great tragicomedies, a bittersweet view of the transience of human carnality. 108 min.
Swedish costume designer and culture personality MAGO (Max Goldstein) designed the film’s costumes, firmly establishing an example of centralized cooperation between the two artists that lasted throughout the years and spanned many films. Whereas Bergman preferred his old leather jacket and beret, MAGO was a true elegant. However, they could unite their artistic vision for absolute quality. Their two artistic temperaments are as fascinating as they may seem out of date in an age rather dominated by effects and quantity.
Professor Astrid Söderbergh Widding is in the Cinema Studies Department and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University, Chair of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, and on the board of The Swedish Film Institute and The Swedish Fulbright Commission.
Mannequin in Red/Mannekäng i rött
Film screening with lecture by Louise Wallenberg
Thursday, March 18, 6:30 pm
Directed by Arne Mattsson (1958). A private detective doubling up as a fashion mannequin, a head designer with lesbian inclinations and a mean, wheelchair-based fashion house matron ominously accompanied by a white cat…welcome to the strange world of the couture salon “La Femme,” where the elegant surface soon starts to peel, revealing what’s hidden and repressed underneath. 108 min.
The combination of uncanny murders, romantic love and traditional comedy make this film one of a kind, thanks in part to director Arne Mattsson, dubbed the “Swedish Hitchcock” due to his daring framing and calculated use of color. What adds to its uniqueness are the costumes made by designer MAGO, who in the making of this film must have had the time of his life, designing effeminate fashion without – it seems – any limitation to his creativity and fantasy.
Dr. Louise Wallenberg will focus on the specific Mattssonian crime genre and its relation to the Italian giallo and to the crime genre as developed in Swedish cinema and literature. She will also focus on the meaning of the many costumes and on the implicit narrative that deals with women’s desire.
Wallenberg is the acting director of the Centre for Fashion Studies and holds a PhD in Cinema Studies (2002) from Stockholm University.
Conditions of Architecture & Current Works
Lecture by Craig Dykers
Tuesday, March 30, 7 pm
$10 ($8 ASF Members, FREE to Students with a valid ID)
A companion lecture to the exhibition SNØHETTA architecture – landscape – interior, Snøhetta co-founder Craig Dykers will present recent works from the Snøhetta office and discuss contemporary conditions in architectural practice that the firm is evaluating.
Dykers co-founded the architecture and design firm in 1989 – the same year the firm won the international competition to design the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. Snøhetta established a New York office in 2004, the year it was awarded the commission for the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center.
The international practice emphasizes site-specific and environmentally responsible design solutions that “enhance…qualities of place and create diverse and rich architectural experiences.” Featured in a multi-faceted exhibition at Scandinavia House on view through April 3, 2010, SNØHETTA architecture – landscape – interior offers insight into the design and construction of the firm’s most important works and includes films, photographs, drawings, models, and interactive learning devices.
A Blaze in the Northern Sky:
Norwegian Black Metal & the Culture that Spawned it
Thursday, April 29, 7 pm
$10 ($8 ASF Members)
In the last two decades, a bizarre, intense, and violent musical subculture called Black Metal has emerged in Norway, and has subsequently become a worldwide phenomenon. In a unique seminar-meets-radio show format moderated by Patrizia Mazzuoccolo, the lecture will explore and promote the genre and its country through audio clips of bands, interviews with musicians and guests, and an audience Q & A session.
Black Metal is a distinctive mix of Satanism, Nordic mythology, and extreme heavy metal. It is the basis of a Norwegian subculture that aggressively forsakes Christianity and mainstream society in favor of Norse mythology, epic Scandinavian nature, and self-inflicted isolation. This violent subculture attracted international attention in the early 1990s with a string of murders, suicides, grave desecrations, and the arson of over 20 Christian churches.
Participants include (via Skype or media feed):
Harald Fossberg, first singer in TURBONEGRO and a veteran of the punk and metal scene in Norway. Currently works as the main rock / metal entertainment journalist for Norwegian broadsheet, Aftenposten;
Nocturno Culto, guitarist, bassist, and songwriter half of legendary Oslo-based band, DARKTHRONE;
Gaahl, ex-GORGOROTH vocalist now performing with folk-inspired crew WARDRUNA and recently recruited by the Bergen Theatre Den Nationale Scene for the role of Heimdal in the play Svartediket which has caused more controversy in Norway.
Moderator:
Patrizia Mazzuoccolo has worked as a music journalist for over 10 years contributing to magazines like Metal Hammer (UK), Terrorizer (UK), Rock Sound (UK), and Metal Maniacs (US), and still writes for Rhythm, where in 2002-2003 she had her own metal column. She worked as a Promotions Producer for the Sky Television network in London from 1998 - 2002, did screen work on MTV2's The Riot (2002), and freelanced for The Rock Show on BBC Radio One in connection with the Norwegian black metal special (2006).
Mazzuoccolo lived in London for 14 years, in Oslo for 6 and currently resides in New York where she is writing a book on the subject of Norwegian metal and culture.
During her time in Oslo, Mazzuoccolo worked as a Marketing and Promotion officer for Moonfog Productions, label manager for Tabu Recordings, acted as consultant and co-organizer of the sold-out Scandinavian metal night at SXSW (2008) and was the co-creator, roving reporter and producer of popular metal show Tinitus on Norwegian national radio NRK P3 from 2005 until early 2009 (www.nrk.no/tinitus).
The Sixth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
Friday, April 30 & Saturday, May 1
FREE, no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come first-served
The 2010 PEN World Voices Festival will be held from April 26 to May 2 at venues throughout New York City and will focus on the freedom of expression and the international fellowship of writers. This annual showcase of writers from all over the world consists of several days of public panels, literary conversations, readings, and tributes. By convening international writers to discuss their relationships to their public and private selves, PEN World Voices aims to expand the dialogue on essential aspects of the human experience that promises to play a crucial role in the interactions of nations, peoples, and individuals for the foreseeable future.
The Poetry of Edward Hopper
Friday, April 30, 1 – 2 pm
The great American painter of solitude returns brilliantly illuminated and transformed by the Catalan poet Ernest Farrés, whose recent publication Edward Hopper is a collection of poems based on the artist’s paintings. New York poet Edward Hirsh, who has also written about Hopper, joins Farrés for a conversation about the power of Hopper’s imagery to invoke poetry.
Participants: Ernest Farrés and Edward Hirsh
Ernest Farrés (Catalonia/Spain) is a journalist and writer. He works for the cultural supplement of La Vanguardia newspaper. He is the author of three volumes of poetry in Catalan: Clavar-ne una al mall i l’altra a l’enclusa (Hit or Miss), Mosquits (Mosquitoes), and Edward Hopper.
Edward Hirsch (United States) a MacArthur Fellow, was born in Chicago in 1950. He has published seven books of poems including, For the Sleepwalkers, Wild Gratitude, Special Orders, and, most recently, The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems. He has also written four prose books, including Poet’s Choice.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation and Institut Ramon Llull
Short Stories: Past, Present, and Future
Friday, April 30, 3:30 – 5 pm
What virtues and challenges are unique to the short story? How flexible is the form? And why is it that, even now—after Poe, Chekov, Hemingway, O’Connor, Nabokov, and Munro—the short story often gets less respect, in terms of prizes and critical esteem, than the novel? Join acclaimed practitioners of the form from Bosnia, Israel, China, Mexico, and the United States, for a conversation with The New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman about the past, present, and future of the short story.
Participants: Preston L. Allen, Alex Epstein, Aleksandar Hemon, Yiyun Li, and Martin Solares
Moderated by Deborah Treisman
Preston L. Allen (United States) is the author of the critically acclaimed novels All or Nothing and Jesus Boy and the award-winning collection Churchboys and Other Sinners. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals and have been anthologized in Brown Sugar, Miami Noir, and Las Vegas Noir. Allen is the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship.
Alex Epstein (Russia/Israel) is the author of three collections of short stories and three novels. He was awarded Israel’s Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature. His short-short stories have appeared in English in Words Without Borders, The Iowa Review, and other journals. His forthcoming novel is titled Blue Has No South.
Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia/U.S.) is the author of The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Love and Obstacles. He edited the Best European Fiction 2010. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004.
Yiyun Li (China/U.S.) is the winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Hemingway Foundation/ PEN Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. The author of The Vagrants and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Li was selected for a Whiting Award, and by Granta as one of the best young American novelists. Her next collection of stories, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, will be published in September.
Martin Solares (Mexico) is a fiction writer and critic. He received the Efraín Huerta National Literary Award in 1998 for his short story “El Planeta Cloralex.” Los Minuts Negros (The Black Minutes) was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize and has been published in Spanish, English, and German.
Deborah Treisman (United States) has been fiction editor of The New Yorker since 2003. Previously, she was the managing editor of Grand Street, and has been a member of the editorial staffs of The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, and The Threepenny Review. Her translations have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Harper’s, and Grand Street.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation
Peter Schneider and Paul Auster in Conversation
Friday, April 30, 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Award-winning German author Peter Schneider, who has published over 20 novels, screenplays, and volumes of journalistic essays since his first novel, Lenz, in 1973, will be interviewed by Brooklyn-based Paul Auster, whose works including The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy are studies of American urban existential dread. Come listen as the two authors compare notes on their literary maps and oeuvres, homelands real and imagined, and their common journeys as authors over the past few tumultuous decades.
Participants: Paul Auster and Peter Schneider
Paul Auster (United States) is the best-selling author of Invisible, Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has been short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the Edgar Award. Auster’s work has been translated into thirty-five languages.
Peter Schneider (Germany) published his first novel Lenz in 1973. More than twenty other novels, screenplays, and volumes of essays followed, including Der Mauerspringer (The Wall Jumper), Extreme Mittelage (The German Comedy), and Paarungen (Couplings). Since 2001, he has been the Roth Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Georgetown University.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation
War and the Novel
Saturday, May 1, 12:30 – 2 pm
Filip Florian’s novel Little Fingers imagines the discovery of a mass grave in a small town. Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone depicts a woman who must nurse her husband while besieged by violence in Afghanistan. In CrocAttack, Assaf Gavron invents a reluctant media celebrity, famous because he did not die in a terrorist attack. And Bernardo Atxaga, in The Accordionist’s Son, has revisited the Spanish Civil War and examined its long repercussions. Why have novelists so long been drawn to the subject of war? And how do writers engage with this fraught and complicated subject? Join novelists from Afghanistan, Spain, Romania, and Israel as they discuss these and many other questions.
Participants: Bernardo Atxaga, Filip Florian, Assaf Gavron, and Atiq Rahimi
Bernardo Atxaga (Spain) is a writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, essays, children’s books, and screenplays for radio and film. He began publishing in his native language of Euskara in the 1970s. Atxaga’s Obabakoak was awarded the Spanish National Literature Prize in 1989 and has been translated into twenty-five languages. His most recent novel, The Accordionist’s Son, was published in 2008.
Filip Florian (Romania) worked as a journalist and reporter for Radio Free Europe. Little Fingers, his first novel, has received numerous awards, including Best Debut Novel from the Romanian Writers Union.
Assaf Gavron (Israel) is an author, translator, and musician. He has published five books of fiction and his short stories have appeared in various anthologies and publications. Among the many works he has translated from English into Hebrew are the novels of Jonathan Safran Foer, Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth, and 9 Stories by J.D. Salinger.
Atiq Rahimi (Afghanistan/France) is recognized as both a writer and a renowned maker of documentary and feature films. The film of his novel Earth and Ashes was in the Official Selection at Cannes Festival in 2004. He is currently adapting one of his novels, A Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fear, for the screen. Since 2001, Rahimi has returned to Afghanistan to set up a Writers’ House in Kabul to offer support and training for young Afghan writers and filmmakers. His latest novel is The Patience Stone.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation
The Essay
Saturday, May 1, 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse such as Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man contribute to the form’s rich history. Brevity is often a defining principle, but the opposite holds true as well, with examples such as John Locke’s voluminous An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. These writers, all of them accomplished essayists, discuss the form — its great history, its restraints, freedoms, and challenges.
Participants: Quim Monzó, Peter Schneider, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Moderated by Susan Harris, editorial director, Words Without Borders
Quim Monzó (Catalonia/Spain) is the recipient of the National Award for fiction, the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps Award for best novel, the Lletra d’Or Prize, and the Catalan Writers’ Award. He has also won Serra d’Or magazine’s Critics’ Award four times and is a contributor to the La Vanguardia newspaper. Most of his novels are written in Catalan, including the most recent, Mil Cretins.
Peter Schneider (Germany) published his first novel Lenz in 1973. More than twenty other novels, screenplays, and volumes of essays followed, including Der Mauerspringer (The Wall Jumper), Extreme Mittelage (The German Comedy), and Paarungen (Couplings). Since 2001, he has been the Roth Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Georgetown University.
Jean-Philippe Toussaint (France/Belgium) has written seven novels and several films. His work has been compared to the work of Samuel Beckett, and the films of Jacques Tati and Jim Jarmusch. Running Away was awarded the Prix Médicis in 2005. He is included in Best European Fiction 2010. His forthcoming books are Self-Portrait Abroad and The Truth About Marie.
Susan Harris (United States) is the editorial director of Words Without Borders. With Ilya Kaminsky, she is the coeditor of the most recent Words Without Borders anthology, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation and Words Without Borders
Participating Nordic Authors
Please visit www.pen.org for schedule and more details.
Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark) has published nine collections of poetry and three collections of short stories. She is included in Best European Fiction 2010. Aidt has also written several plays, children’s books, song lyrics, and the screenplay for the feature film Strings. In 2008, her collection Bavian received the most prestigious literary prize awarded in the Nordic countries, the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.
Jostein Gaarder (Norway) is the author of Sophie’s World, which has been translated into 53 languages and has sold over 30 million copies. His other works include children’s books and adult novels such as The Solitaire Mystery, Through a Glass, Darkly, Vita Brevis, among many others. Gaarder has been involved in the promotion of human rights and sustainable development for several years, establishing the Sophie Prize, an annual international environment and development prize.
Frederic Hauge (Norway) established the Bellona Foundation in 1986. Through investigation, documentation, legal action, and nonviolent activism, Bellona has brought changes in environmental policies in Norway and internationally. Today, Bellona is an international scientific and technology-based environmental NGO. In 2007 Hauge was elected vice chairman of the European Commission’s Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants, and TIME Magazine named him a Hero of the Environment.
Karl O. Knausgaard (Norway) made his debut with the novel Ute Av Verden (Out of the World). A Time for Everything, his second novel and his first to be published in English, was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize. The first volume of his celebrated six-volume Min Kamp (My Struggle) received Norway’s prestigious Brage Prize in 2009.
Bjørn Lomborg (Denmark) is the organizer and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, which brings together some of the world’s top economists to set priorities for the world. In 2008 he was named “one of the 50 people who could save the planet” by the UK Guardian, “one of the top 100 public intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines, and “one of the world’s 75 most influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire.
Sofi Oksanen (Finland) is the author of the novels Stalin’s Cows, Baby Jane, and most recently, Purge. Purge — the first book to win both of Finland’s top literary awards, the Finlandia and the Runeberg — is based on her acclaimed and controversial play of the same name, originally staged at the National Theater in Helsinki. In 2009, Oksanen was named Estonia’s Person of the Year.
Janne Teller (Denmark) is the author of Odin’s Island, which has been translated into five languages. Her second novel, Nothing, written for young adults, was awarded the Danish Cultural Ministry Prize for best children’s book of 2001, as well as the prestigious Le Prix Libbylit 2008 for best novel for children in the French-speaking world.
Eco Chic-related Programs @ Scandinavia House
Symposium - Towards Sustainable Fashion
Directly followed by the Opening Party for Eco Chic in Volvo Hall
Tuesday, May 4, 6:30 pm, Victor Borge Hall
Please note this program is now full. We apologize for any inconvenience, but still encourage you to attend the opening party and exhibition viewing for Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion the same evening at 7:30 pm
A symposium, in conjunction with the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Fashion, with fashion designers who take an environmentally-friendly and ethical approach to their work, without sacrificing style. The panel of speakers includes designers and fashion experts from Sweden and the United States - Marcus Bergman, Karin Stenmar, Sass Brown and Eviana Hartman, and is moderated by Dr. Hazel Clark, Dean of the School of Art and Design and Theory, Parsons: The New School for Design.
The symposium is followed by a party celebrating the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Fashion at Scandinavia House, with music by Markus Görsch (of Love is all) and Gary Olson (of Ladybug Transistor & Marlborough Farms) . The exhibit will remain open until 9:30 pm.
Marcus Bergman is one of the partners of Bergman's (a part of the exhibition). Bergman is a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and lecturer at University College of Borås. For more information, please visit www.ecocotton.com/.
Karin Stenmar is one of the two founders of Dem Collective (a part of the exhibition). Since 2004 Karin and Annika Axelsson have ensured that Sweden receives a steady supply of fair produced and organic clothes from Dem Collective's own factories in Sri Lanka. For more information, please visit www.demcollective.com/.
Sass Brown is a full time professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, now resident in Florence, Italy, where she is the Resident Director for FIT's study abroad program. Originally from London, England, Sass established herself as a designer with her own signature collection selling across Canada, and as VP of Merchandising for Perry Ellis Kids. As an academic, Sass's area of research is in the area of community outreach and ethical design practices in fashion based businesses. Sass has published papers and spoken around the world on the topic of sustainable design. She has also worked and volunteered in women's cooperatives in Latin America, and in particular in Brazil's largest favela - Rocinha, as well as taught workshops to manufacturers and fashion enterprises in Peru.
Eviana Hartman, founder and designer Bodkin. Hartman was the fashion features editor at NYLON, fashion writer at Vogue and Teen Vogue, and the founding columnist of EcoWise in The Washington Post. She collaborated with designer Wendy Mullin on the Sew U series of books for Little, Brown and Potter Craft, and has written about music, style, architecture, and design for such publications as Dwell, I.D., Purple Fashion, VMan, Domino, and Wired. Her interest in sustainability began while studying under architect William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle. She is also a modern dancer and plays drums in the band Open Ocean.
Dr. Hazel Clark is Dean of the School of Art and Design History at Parsons the New School for Design. She is a design historian and theorist who has taught internationally and has a particular interest in design and culture, and fashion and textiles including ethical practices. Her most recent publications include co-editing Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion (Berg, 2005), The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity and Globalization (Routledge, 2009) and Design Studies: A Reader (Berg, 2009). Her articles include: SLOW + FASHION - An Oxymoron or a Promise for the Future..?, Fashion Theory, 12: 4, December 2008.
Talk and Walk
Eco-Fashion Going Green & Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion
Wednesday, June 9, 10:30 am
FREE, but registration is required
For information and to register, please visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum
Join us for a walk through New York City visiting two exhibitions that highlight sustainability in fashion. First have a tour with curator Jennifer Farley of The Museum at FIT’s Eco-Fashion: Going Green and then visit Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion at Scandinavia House.
Meeting point: The Museum at FIT, 10:30 am, 7th Avenue (@ 27th Street), continuing to Scandinavia House
This event is organized in collaboration with The Museum at FIT. For information, visit www.fitnyc.edu.
The Annual Nordic Forum 2010:
Investment Trends in a Challenging Economy
Tuesday, September 14, 6 pm
$50; reservations are required. Please RSVP to event_reservation@amscan.org
The five Nordic-American Chambers of Commerce and The American-Scandinavian Foundation present Nordic Forum 2010, a panel discussion and reception with the theme Investment Trends in a Challenging Economy.
The Ambassador
Book Talk with Bragi Ólafsson
Thursday, September 30, 6:30 pm
FREE
Sturla Jón Jónsson, the fifty-something building superintendent and sometimes poet, has been invited to a poetry festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, appointed, as he sees it, as the official representative of the people of Iceland to the field of poetry. His latest poetry collection, published on the eve of his trip to Vilnius, is about to cause some controversy in his home country—Sturla is publicly accused of having stolen the poems from his long-dead cousin, Jónas.
Then there’s Sturla’s new overcoat, the first expensive item of clothing he has ever purchased, which causes him no end of trouble. And the article he wrote for a literary journal, which points out the stupidity of literary festivals and declares the end of his career as a poet. Sturla has a lot to deal with, and that’s not counting his estranged wife and their five children, nor the increasingly bizarre experiences and characters he’s forced to confront at the festival in Vilnius.
Bragi Ólafsson’s most recent work The Ambassador is a quirky novel that’s filled with insightful and wry observations about aging, family, love, and the mysteries of the hazelnut. It was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller’s Award as Best Novel of the Year.
Ólafsson was born in Reykjavík, and may be most well known for playing bass in The Sugarcubes, Björk’s first band. After recording three albums and touring the world, he quit making music and turned to writing. He is the author of several books of poetry and short stories, and four novels, including Party Games, for which he received the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. He is also a founder of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and has translated Paul Auster's City of Glass into Icelandic.
Co-presented in collaboration with Open Letter Books.
Nordic Design Now
Wednesday, November 10 & Thursday, November 11, both @ 7 pm
Individual tickets for each program: $15 ($10 ASF & CH Members)
Nordic Design Now consists of two panel discussions, Social Awareness & Sustainability and Design Policy: Lessons Learned, co-presented by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and The American-Scandinavian Foundation. These panels are held in conjunction with two design exhibitions: National Triennial 2010: Why Design Now? at Cooper-Hewitt and Nordic Models + Common Ground at Scandinavia House.
Co-presented by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Funding for this program has been provided by the Nordic Culture Fund, with special thanks to the Consulate General of Denmark in New York; the Consulate General of Iceland; the Consulate General of Finland in New York; the Royal Norwegian Consulate General; and the Consulate General of Sweden, New York.
Social Awareness & Sustainability
Moderated by Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
7 pm Wednesday, November 10, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Designers working in the Nordic countries often favor simplicity, clean lines, and modern shapes and colors. Nordic designers also have a long tradition of creating designs for products, public spaces and buildings that take into account quality of life and social responsibility. Sustainability has also been an integral part of Nordic design traditions through consideration of materials and craftsmanship. Many emerging, as well as established designers in the Nordic region are currently working on projects that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also focus on social welfare and the environmental impact of the designs.
The first panel is moderated by Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and features leading Nordic designers discussing their stance on sustainability and social responsibility in their work and current design practices.
Panelists:
Nille Juul-Sørensen, Associate Director with Arup
Ville Kokkonen, Design Director of Artek Oy
Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director of the Iceland Design Centre
Lavrans Løvlie, co-founder of London-based design service agency liveıwork
Stefan Magnusson, Founding Partner & Senior Industrial Designer, No Picnic AB
Design Policy: Lessons Learned
Moderated by Bradford McKee, Editor-in-Chief of Landscape Architecture Magazine
Panel introductions by Mr. Trond Giske, Norwegian Minister of Trade and Commerce
7 pm Thursday, November 11, Scandinavia House
How does policy cultivate the right conditions for design markets to be competitive on a global scale and still be socially minded? The Nordic countries have set a precedent for design policy in the global design community. Today Nordic design and business increasingly go hand-in-hand. Promoting good design that creates solutions to social, ethical, and environmental problems has proven over time to be good business for the Nordic design market.
Moderated by Bradford McKee, Editor-in-Chief, Landscape Architecture Magazine, the second panel also includes up-and-coming and major designers, focusing on architecture and design policies in the Nordic countries and the knowledge acquired in carrying out those policies.
Panelists:
Christian Scherfig, CEO of the Danish Design Centre
Sanna-Mari Jäntti, Development Director, World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director of the Iceland Design Centre
Lavrans Løvlie is a co-founder of London-based service design agency live|work.
Robin Edman, SVID, The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, Sweden
Susan Sontag Foundation Translation Prize Seminar
Friday, November 12, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, 5 – 6 pm & 8:30 pm
The 2010 Susan Sontag Prize for Translation was awarded to Benjamin Mier-Cruz, a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley, for his proposed translation of selected letters and poems by the Finland-Swedish author Elmer Diktonius (1896 -1961). In celebration of the translation prize, programs will include the panel discussions The Challenges of Literary Translation Today and Elmer Diktonius, Finland-Swedish Literature, and Modernism in Scandinavia. Programs will also include a screening of the rare Sontag film Duet for Cannibals/Duett för kannibaler (Sweden, 1969).
Benjamin Mier-Cruz is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley. He received his B.A. in German Language and Literature from Arizona State University and completed his M.A. at UC Berkeley. Mier-Cruz studies 19th- and 20th-century Swedish literature with a particular interest in Finland-Swedish modernism and German expressionist poetry. He is fluent in German and Swedish and has studied in Berlin and Uppsala. Mier-Cruz became interested in Elmer Diktonius after lengthy study of Diktonius’ literary colleague Edith Södergran.
Elmer Diktonius’ letters to prominent European authors and literary critics are rich and vibrant documentation of Finland’s evolving Swedish language literature. The letters originate during the Finnish Civil War in 1918, when Diktonius was just 22 years old, and conclude with his final correspondences in 1951. The exchanges reveal the private conflicts and travels of a vanguardist of literary expressionism. In the true spirit of modernism, Diktonius sought a new literature that reconciled antiquated art forms with the psyche of a changing Europe; one that represented and provoked revolt against political and economic establishments. The letters give insight into the literary climate that lay behind the radical yet finely tuned poetry that is also included in this translation.
Elmer Diktonius (1896 – 1961) was a Finland-Swedish avant-garde poet who helped to arouse modernism in Scandinavian literature. Diktonius introduced unique representations of social, political, and cultural change with an innovative style that borrowed elements of Finnish in his Swedish verse.
Born in Helsinki, Diktonius, also a composer and fluent in Finnish, fervently sought to abandon the rigid structures of traditional rhythm in verse. He promoted literary expressionism in Finland by giving voice to man’s internal consciousness and social unrest as it came into modernity and confronted new technology. Diktonius’ poetry demonstrates his visionary aspirations for literature, the working-class, and the fate of his native Finland. His swaying political views can be seen throughout his writing, which ended in 1951.
Special thanks to the Consulate General of Sweden, New York; the Consulate General of Finland, New York; and Jacob Perlin, BAMcinématek.
The Challenges of Literary Translation Today
3:30 – 4:30 pm
FREE
Panelists include:
Benjamin Mier-Cruz, David Rieff, Judith Thurman, Susan Bernofsky, and Chad Post
Elmer Diktonius, Finland-Swedish Literature, and Modernism in Scandinavia
5 – 6 pm
FREE
Panelists include:
Benjamin Mier-Cruz and Agneta Rahikainen
The Lapp King’s Daughter
Book Talk with Stina Katchadourian
Tuesday, November 16, 6:30 pm
FREE
From 1939 to 1945, Finland fought three wars: the Winter War of 1939, when the Soviet Union attacked the country; the Continuation War, when Finland fought the Soviet Union alongside Germany; and the Lapland War of 1944-45 against Germany.
Stina Katchadourian's memoir, The Lapp King's Daughter, tells the story of how these three wars uprooted the lives of one Finnish family. The book draws on the author's childhood memories and also on the correspondence between her parents, who were separated during most of World War II, with the father on the front, fighting the Soviets.
In 1944, the mother took her two daughters from their home in Helsinki and moved them to the presumed safety of a farm in Finnish Lapland. A pawn in the power play between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, Finland had allied itself with Germany, hoping to stave off a Russian occupation. But in the summer of 1944, Finland could no longer fight, and so concluded a separate ceasefire with the Soviets. The peace conditions were harsh. No one knew what the Red Army would do next.
Things did get worse. Strongly urged by the Russians, the Finns attacked the Germans in Lapland. This conflict was preceded by a mass evacuation of the population of Finnish Lapland (100,000 people and their livestock), as the retreating Germans, using the scorched-earth tactic, burned down all of Finnish Lapland.
Sixty years later, after both her parents had passed away, Stina Katchadourian read their wartime correspondence for the first time, while she was a resident at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Through those carefully saved and chronologically bundled letters emerges a little girl who, sheltered by her parents' love, never realized how close to the brink she and her country had come.
Finland’s dramatic political history during World War II and how this small country retained its independence despite facing occupation by the Soviet Union or domination by Nazi Germany is told in riveting detail in this eyewitness account, which also includes family photos, maps, historical photos and other unique material from Swedish and Finnish archives.
Co-presented in collaboration with the Finlandia Foundation.
Multicultural and Multilingual Identities in Contemporary Sweden
By ASF Visiting Lecturer Dr. Gunlög Sundberg
Monday, November 22, 6:30 pm
FREE
Sweden today is a multicultural society. ASF Visiting Lecturer Dr. Gunlög Sundberg will discuss individuals of different identities who use their multilingual or multicultural background as a resource in their professional lives in contemporary Sweden, using examples from literature, film, politics, music, education, sports, and business. Dr. Sundberg will also address new language laws and how Swedish, English, minority, and immigrant languages are used and identified in a multilingual Sweden.
Dr. Sundberg is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Stockholm University. She holds higher degrees from Stockholm University and Indiana University. During the fall 2010 semester, she will be an ASF Visiting Lecturer at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she will teach an advanced Swedish course and a class about contemporary multiculturalism in Sweden, as well as offering guest presentations. Dr. Sundberg will share her research on second language usage and multicultural workplace communication in Sweden. She will also participate in a weekly interdisciplinary multicultural applied linguistics seminar. Additionally, Dr. Sundberg will attend the annual Swedish Teacher’s Conference in North America, hosted by the Swedish Institute in fall 2010.
2009
Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts
Book Talk and Lecture by Per Olaf Fjeld
Monday, September 21, 6:30 pm
FREE
As recipient of the 1997 Pritzker Architecture Prize – the profession’s highest honor – architect Sverre Fehn received critical acclaim in his native Norway and internationally. 
His projects, often described as being instilled with a human quality, were strongly influenced by Scandinavia’s breathtaking landscape and light conditions. 
Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts provides an intimate glimpse into the world of this great post-war modernist architect known for his design sensibility and complex creative process. Oslo School of Architecture and Design Professor Per Olaf Fjeld presents both biography and perceptive critiques as he covers Fehn’s unique approach to architecture.
Co-presented with The Monacelli Press.
New Scandinavian Cuisine:
The Scandinavian Cookbook with Trine Hahnemann
Tuesday, September 29, 6:30 pm
FREE
More than a mere collection of recipes, chef and food author Trine Hahnemann’s latest book The Scandinavian Cookbook promotes fresh ideas in new Scandinavian cooking and food culture. Hahnemann lives in Denmark and has worked as a chef since the early 90s. Hahnemann will give a talk on the uniqueness of new Nordic food, the evening concludes with a question and answer session, book-signing, and reception.
Co-presented with the Consulate General of Denmark, New York.
Sponsored by Arla Foods.
Designing The Hamsun Centre:
A Lecture with the Architect Steven Holl
Monday, October 5, 6:30 pm
$10 ($8 ASF members)
The Knut Hamsun Centre opened in Hamarøy, Norway, in August of this year to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Hamsun’s birth. Architect Steven Holl, who designed the centre, will delve into the concept behind it: “building as a body; battleground of invisible forces” and the process undertaken to actualize the building.
Influenced by Hamsun’s explorations of the intricacies of the human mind, the building was conceived as an archetypal and intensified compression of spirit in space and light, and as the realization of a Hamsun character in architectonic terms.
Hamsun, Norway’s most innovative writer of the 20th century, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel, the ground-breaking Hunger (Sult). With the publication of later novels such as Pan, Mysteries (Mysterier), Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde), he established the foundation of a truly modern school of fiction. Hamsun’s work has been particularly inspiring to filmmakers, which is evident in the more than 17 films based on and inspired by his writings. His brilliant literary career was offset later in life by political turmoil. Hamsun's long-standing admiration for Germany made him sympathetic to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940, and consequently one of Norway’s most controversial figures.
http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=museums&id=39 http://www.arcspace.com/architects/Steven_Holl/hamsun_museum/
Co-presented by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York.
Fresh! From Finland: Culinary Adventure
Wednesday, October 28, 7 pm
$25 ($20 ASF members)
This event is now full and is no longer accepting reservations
A relatively unknown culinary destination, Finland is living a remarkable food renaissance.
Numerous Finnish restaurants are utilizing fresh local produce, 
attracting both Michelin Stars and praise from international press. Finnish cuisine is a delicate mixture of East and West - Scandinavian cooking spiced up with some Russian influence. Ingredients harvested from the clean waters and abundant forests of Finland serve both as the inspiration and as the raw material for kitchen. 
Scandinavia House is celebrating Finnish culinary culture in October by bringing the fresh flavors of Finnish cuisine to New York. Some of the best chefs of Finland are spicing up the menus of Smörgås Chef Restaurant @ Scandinavia House for a week with exciting Finnish dishes. The Shop @ Scandinavia House will feature a special Fresh! From Finland section with Finnish food products, 
cooking books and other dining related items.
This one night special food demonstration and tasting event offers the possibility to familiarize yourself with delicious and surprising flavors of Finland from the Southern archipelagos to the Arctic North. Chefs from Finland demonstrate various cooking techniques with a reception featuring a sampling of Finnish delicacies to follow.
Special Menu for Finnish Food Week @ Smörgås Chef Restaurant @ Scandinavia House:
Cream of sunchoke with King crabs legs
Lamb rack with rosemary and lemon sauce
Sea buckthorn with vanilla flavored skyr
Fresh! from Finland is produced by the Consulate General of Finland in New York with the support of Benecol, Finland Cheese, Iittala and Visit Finland.
Eero Saarinen: Form-Giver at Mid-Century - A Lecture by Architect Der Scutt
Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 6.30 pm, $15 ($10 ASF, ASS and Finlandia Foundation members)
Presented at the Museum of the City of New York from November 10, 2009 through January 31, 2010, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is the first retrospective of this architect’s career, which was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial in the history of 20th-century architecture. From the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the St. Louis Gateway Arch to the Pedestal Chair for Knoll Associates, Saarinen (1910-1961) created some of the most potent expressions of American identity after World War II. Saarinen’s clients constituted a who’s who of the era’s most prominent industries and institutions. For them he designed buildings that advanced the expansion of higher education to the promotion of automobile culture and air travel, popular forms of entertainment like television, and the newest information technologies. Featuring sketches, working drawings, models, photographs, furnishings, films, and other ephemera, the exhibition examines the architect’s career from the 1930s through the early 1960s.
To celebrate this exhibition Finlandia Foundation New York Metropolitan Chapter and the American-Scandinavian Society have organized an evening at Scandinavian House: The Nordic Center in America in honor of Eero Saarinen. Der Scutt, FAIA Architect, will tell us more about Saarinen in words and pictures. We will have a chance to meet and greet with Susan Saarinen, Eero Saarinen’s daughter, as she is our guest of honor at this event.
A reception to follow the lecture.
About Der Scutt:
Der Scutt, FAIA is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning architect. His skyscrapers, including high-rise office and residential buildings, can be seen throughout Manhattan's skyline. His projects include numerous corporate headquarters, museums, research laboratories, and residences.
Scutt was in New Haven during Saarinen's relocation and was thus able to witness firsthand the construction of some of Saarinen's notable achievements. He visited most of the projects illustrated in the talk.
Both Saarinen and Scutt (first in his class) were honor graduates of Yale University School of Architecture. Yale produced many of the most famous architects practicing today.
Scutt became close friends with Aline Saarinen, Eero's second wife and consequently was able to visit with Saarinen on several occasions. Growing up with and travelling through Saarinen’s projects gave Scutt a unique position in discussing this great architect's work.
Der Scutt works and lives in New York with his Finnish wife, Leena Scutt of Mikkeli, Finland.
Info:
Reservations must be made by November 9, 2009 with payment and checks made payable to American Scandinavian Society. For more information please call Leena Scutt 212.744.0813 or email information@finlandiafoundationny.org
Related event:
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
Museum of the City of New York
November 10, 2009 – January 31, 2010
More information at the following links:
http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions/future/eero-saarinen.html
http://www.eerosaarinen.net/project.shtml
Energy and Architecture: How Green is Green?
Monday, November 16, 6:30 pm
$10 ($8 ASF members)
A panel discussion including American and Danish architects will analyze the benefits, compromises, and challenges in creating and designing sustainable buildings and communities in the U.S. and Denmark. 
The panel, which includes architects Stephen Kieran of the well-known Philadelphia firm Kieran Timberlake and Bjarke Ingels, head of the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), will explore the differences and similarities in the energy-saving measures used by architects in each country. Since the U.S. and Denmark vary greatly in size, climatic conditions, and commonly-used building materials and energy-saving features, the discussion will examine how each country can learn from the other. The moderator of the discussion is Suzanne Stephens, deputy editor of Architectural Record.
Co-Presented with Architectural Record and the Consulate General of Denmark, New York.
Low Carbon Growth?
Perspectives for the UN Conference on Climate Change
Monday, November 23, 6 – 8 pm
$50
Advance reservations are required. Please call 212.847.9740
The five Nordic-American Chambers of Commerce and The American-Scandinavian Foundation join together to host this United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 15, event where the panel will consist of the five Nordic Ambassadors to the UN, H.E. Carsten Staur (Denmark), H.E. Jarmo Viinanen (Finland), H.E. Dr. Gunnar Pálsson (Iceland), H.E. Morten Wetland (Norway), and H.E. Anders A. Lidén (Sweden), who will discuss the upcoming conference in Copenhagen, December 7th through 18th. A reception will follow.
Co-presented in collaboration with the five Nordic American Chambers of Commerce of New York.