Meetings with authors, lectures, presentations, language workshops, concerts and film screenings, all devoted to Nordic countries - the Faculty of Languages and the Faculty of History of the UG will host the Nordic Focus Festival for the ninth time. NFF 2024 will take place from November 22 - 24.
The current edition of the festival will have a special focus on Finland, which is why the event will be opened by Päivi Maarit Laine , who is the Ambassador of the Republic of Finland to Poland, together with the Vice-Rector for Student Affairs dr hab. Urszula Patocka-Sigłowy, prof. UG. The first highlight of the event will be the screening of the film The Best of Muminki with live music by the band NAGROBKI and Mikołaj Trzaska (Friday, 18:30).
Saturday and Sunday mornings will be enriched by language workshops for beginners: Finnish (Saturday, 11:00, auditorium 1.48), Norwegian (Saturday, 11:00, auditorium 1.43), Danish (Sunday, 11:00, auditorium 1.43), and Swedish (Saturday, 12:00, auditorium 1.43).
As in previous years, the main part of the festival will be author meetings around literature and art. During the three days of the Nordic journey, the organisers will invite participants to numerous discussions, lectures and presentations on the cultures and societies of the North. This year, the block of presentations will be opened by students of the Finnish lineage: Florian Huzar, Monika Zarajczyk, Laura Czernysz, and Łukasz Sankala with a presentation on Finnish culture entitled ‘Strange as Finnish’.
During the meeting with Laura Santoo, entitled ‘Q&A: Finnish in Gdańsk’, it will be possible to hear about the experiences of the Finnish guest in Poland. The Festival will also feature Kalev, Sampo and Lappi - husky dogs who will come with Magda and Michał Makowski, to talk about the Kalevala Finnish Village, the only such settlement outside of Finland. An equally interesting point on the programme will be the presentation ‘We Just Love Eurovision Too Much’ by Maja Wojcieszek, a graduate in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Gdańsk and editor of the eurovision.org website, and the lecture ‘Kalsarikanni, sauna and sisu - the Finnish philosophy of happiness’, hosted by dr Agata Rudnik, discussing the role of these Finnish concepts in shaping the philosophy of happiness.
For those interested in literature, there will be a meeting with translator Sebastian Musielak, who has translated the book ‘Hunting the Little Pike’, as well as a number of author meetings, including prof. Wojciech Woźniak, author of The State That Works. On Finnish public policies, Oliver Lovrenski, the youngest winner of the prestigious Norwegian Booksellers Prize 2023 and author of the novel How We Were Younger , or with Emiliana Konopka and Anna M. Prorok, co-authors of the book Nordic Stories.
This year's NFF also includes accompanying events, including art exhibitions, some of which will take place outside the university campus. Together with the Ethnography Department of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the organisers invite the public to a screening of the film Memoirs of Daddy Mummy, directed by Ira Carpelan. A ‘Performative Walk’ will take place in Oliwa Park, showing the fascinating ‘choreography’ of plants, led by Ula Zerek, Magda Jędra and Anna Steller. For families, there will be a workshop entitled ‘In the Land of the Moomins’ with Kamila Szelągowicz, providing excellent entertainment for parents with children. An artistic complement to this year's NFF will be the projection of Interruptions photography by the duo Cooper & Gorfer on the building of the Abbot's Granary.
You can read more about the festival on the official NFF website.
A detailed programme of the event is available here.
You are also welcome to visit the Nordic Focus Festival Facebook page
Organisers and partners
Honorary patronage: Rector of the University of Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark, Embassy of the Republic of Finland, Embassy of the Republic of Iceland, Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway and Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden, Honorary Consulate General of Sweden in Gdańsk
Organisers: JANTAR Association of Artistic Initiatives, National Museum in Gdańsk
Partners: University of Gdańsk, UG Academic Cultural Centre ‘Alternator’, UG Institute of Scandinavian and Fennist Studies, UG Film Discussion Club Love Blonde, UG Main Library, NORLA - Norwegian Literature Abroad, Polish-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, ArtRage Publishing House, Marpress Publishing House, Poznan Publishing House, Bezdroża Publishing House, Moc Media Publishing House, University of Gdańsk Publishing House, Salomonsson Agency, THULE Portal, UG Academic Psychological Support Centre, Nordsterna Scientific Circle, University of Gdańsk Academic Choir, Tactic Games, Silplito, Finnish Kalevala Village, Language School Językonauta, ulillu, Smak Słowa Bookshop, Coffee-Moose Gdańsk, Dom Oliwski & Fischgarten.
Media patronage: Portal Trojmiasto.pl, Radio Gdańsk, Magazyn Skandynawski Zew Północy, Szwecjoblog, ‘Gazeta Uniwersytecka’ Pismo społeczności Akademickiej UG, Radio MORS, Prestiż Magazyn Trójmiejski, Radio Gdańsk, MojaNorwegia.pl
The project was realised as part of the statutory activities of the Association of Artistic Initiatives JANTAR.
Subsidised by the City of Gdańsk.
The project was supported by the National Plan for Rebuilding and Increasing Resilience and co-financed by the European Union NextGenerationEU.