A FRIDAY SPENT AT THINK SPACE CONFERENCE
– Urban Gentrification can be a Benevolent Force, or: Hipsters are not so Bad

For the first ever Copenhagen Think Space conference, our friends, the affable urban development experts at Givrum.nu, had seen it fit to hold their event in a big, bright and spacious sports arena. And the architecture and intricate design of the building on Prags Boulevard set the scene in a curiously beautiful way as creative mavericks from German socio-economic entrepreneurs to scruffy Danish festival organisers held talks and discussed why they do things the way they do.

ExRotaprint: Determined Germans
The first talk that your intrepid The Institute reporter came into contact Friday was given by Daniela Brahm from Berlin-based, socio-economic enterprise, ExrotaPrint. The German collectives overall aim was to be a prominent cultural force within urban planning while also overseeing the upkeep of the classic buildings. Moreover, Daniela talked about her experiences and challenges in connection with ExRotaprint, which, as you can probably imagine, gave way to an extensive talk that provided a great deal of interesting perspectives. The German artist was very determined that ExRotaprint would be worse off if it turned into a segregated world comprised of ivory tower intellectuals and artists with no real connection to its outside enviroment. Which is why the German enterprise had, among other things, taken it upon themselves to provide immigrants with classes in German. The attendees got a good sense of the inclusive and effervescent creative spirit of Berlin. And the ExRotaprint story poses the question: could this be the future of urban planning?

Check the interview below for more info on Daniela Brahm and the ExRotaprint project.

Sejerø Festival: The Way we talk about our Reality matters
This summer, around 400 people descended on the tiny, Danish Island of Sejerø to participate in the first annual Sejerø Festival, organised by Thomas Buhl-Wiggers and Kasper Lynge Jensen. It quickly became apparent that they’d had a good time preparing for the event and the video they showed of the festival gave out nice, deliciously off-kilter, summer vibrations. The music booking was an interesting mix of avant-garde urban music (Shackleton) and Danish, progressive rock (Thulebasen) and there was a sense that this was actually an entirely new way of conceptualising a festival. Thomas was very adamant that the festival would’ve had a different feel if they had tried to get funding through putting a political angle on their concept; if Sejerø festival had been positioned as a strengthening of the cultural life of provincial Denmark in order to get capital for their project, it would have lost some of its magic. An important point was made: the way we talk about and put our reality into words matters more than we think.

Think Space on Friday was a decidedly uplifting and inspiring day. The organisers had created a temporary microcosm of diverse but like-minded individuals that succinctly addressed the problems that modern cities face while providing several glimpses into the future of the urban environment. Who knew that using empty buildings could be this exciting?

Shout-outs: Givrum.nu, Daniella Brahm, Sejerø Festval and the whole Think Space crew for an inspiring day!