The festival director's speech at the Shanghai International Art festival 2009:
An artistic experience is no flight from reality; rather a confrontation, an encounter between man and art, between eras, places and ideas.
In these encounters some things will make, some will break: a single theatre performance may shatter your illusions on the subject of love. A concert may remind us of the proximity of death, and a single sentence may give us a feeling of boundless freedom. Art brings new insight and understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.
During two weeks in May and June, Bergen, one of the oldest cities in Norway, turns into the hub of the Nordic art universe. More than 160 events in 17 different venues take place, in addition to an outdoor programme. The festival features a wide range of art forms: Music, theatre, opera, dance, literature and visual art.
Bergen nestles amid seven mountains at the entrance to Norway’s fjord country. This is the home town of the world famous dramatist Jon Fosse; Henrik Ibsen worked once at the city theatre, and one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the world, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, is located here. The homes of Edvard Grieg, Ole Bull and Harald Sæverud are unforgettable settings for concerts during the festival.
Since its inception in 1953, the festival has gone through varied phases of development. Like all artistic activity festivals both influence and are influenced by society. This too has been the case with the Bergen International festival. It was first and foremost based on a desire to establish a national arena, an arena where the art of Norway's most important cultural figures could be displayed. The need for a symbol of national cultural identity was important for a small country after five years of occupation. After the war Norwegian culture was still reverberating from the shockwaves that affected large parts of Europe's intellectual life. The need to restore order, establish structure and develop a national identity was important for social development and was the underlying current, within business, cultural institutions and politics alike, behind the creation of the festival.
Such a foundation, while necessary, is problematic for a festival which wants to take the social mission of arts seriously. It is important to ensure a delicate balance between being in position and in opposition simultaneously.
As I mentioned, Bergen has a unique history rich in tradition. However, to challenge this tradition is the only way to save it - a tradition that doesn’t change - a tradition that doesn’t develop and transform - will decline and die. The vision of our festival is to contribute to this transformation and development. We must break the bounds of what is otherwise possible.
While doing this the Bergen International Festival must also link together various artistic institutions and artists, locally, nationally and internationally. We need to function as a generator providing the extra energy necessary to develop grandiose collaborative projects that attract attention. We have done so on several occasions. Productions first staged by the Bergen International Festival have gone on to play elsewhere in the world.
The Bergen International Festival builds on the fundamental concept that the arts are important for insight into ourselves. In Norway the classical artistic tradition that the festival is based on no longer holds the same position in society as it used to. More people go out to rock concerts and various kinds of light entertainment. Perhaps they think art is difficult to understand; perhaps they don't feel it is relevant to them. That is a great pity, because people need art, and art needs people.
It is for this reason that it is an essential task for the Bergen International Festival to lower the threshold for audiences, and to make artistic experiences more readily accessible. By moving the festival outdoors into the city, we create venues where it is easy for people to meet art. The projects we present here are often of a special kind. People are surprised and curious when they hear top-notch musicians perform from the roof of a building or from a manhole in the street. The Bergen International Festival must be a high point for everyone, a break from daily routine, even for those who don't buy tickets to concert halls.
The festival has also taken one page from the telephone directory and invited everyone on it to attend a concert indoors free of charge. Hopefully it will give them a taste for more.
The Bergen International Festival should not be a ceremony that confirms and conserves. When we invite people to the festival, we invite them a ritual challenge.
I was recently asked what my primary criterion for success was. When am I most satisfied with what we are doing – what gives me most satisfaction – when are we most successful?
The first thing that struck me was that the answer is related to risk-taking. When the risk is greatest the reward is greatest too. To move on we have to take chances. When we do, we challenge ourselves, our artists and our audiences. Doing something new – initiating and carrying through a project in an area never attempted before – is risk-taking. Going for new talent is risk-taking. Challenging our habits, changing track, taking a different viewpoint – these are all ways of taking risks. It is courageous because we do not know what we will discover, and that can be very unsettling. Risk requires courage, because we have no idea what is going to happen. I feel most successful in my role as festival director when I know that I have taken a risk and it has paid off. I like resistance. It is only through resistance that something new can emerge.