SERBIA IN THE LENS OF A DANISH PHOTOGRAPHER

What does Serbia look like in the eyes and through the photo lens of a Dane?

Throughout the year, we carefully built the story that we will present at the celebration of the birthday of our homeland. Thanks to the exceptional cooperation of our Embassy with the Tourist Organization of Serbia, in August 2019 the guest of Belgrade and Novi Sad was a distinguished photo-reporter of the prestigious Danish newspaper Copenhagen Post, a world traveler and art photographer, Dr. Hasse Ferold.

Dr. Ferold is as well among the members of the diplomatic corps. His exceptional photos (more than a hundred) that he took in Belgrade and Novi Sad and posted on his highly visited blog, was well received by his faithful visitors on his blog. We prepared the photos as a video slide show, and according to the choice of eminent designers of ´TOS´ and in the realization of our main tourist organization, from Belgrade, eighteen hardcover poster photographs were delivered to our Embassy in Copenhagen. We equipped them here, signed them… The exhibition about how a Dane sees Serbia was ready. In addition to the catalog…

And the catalog? Exhibition without a catalog?! How is that, why is that?!

The catalog was a challenge for the diplomatic community that Dr. Hasse Ferrold has been following for years, reporting on us, always there, and with us.

Our guests - active participants in the artistic performance

Our Ambassador invited her colleagues to write their stories about Dr. Ferrold, which will form a unique catalog about the author. That's how it was… colleagues enthusiastically accepted the idea of the Serbian Ambassador and together, as part of the celebration of our National Day, they participated in the performance, in a symbolic photo-dark laboratory. The Ambassadors made their own art installation. The catalog was created in front of all of us, we were all part of the author's photography-portrait made of words. The catalog did not wait for us at the exhibition, it was created at the exhibition… Thus, the guests were active participants in an exceptional event which, on the National Day of Serbia, celebrated the friendship between Denmark and Serbia in an unusual way.

 What does Denmark look like in the eyes and colors of a Serb?

An unexpected surprise for all present guest was, the Serbian academic painter Aleksandar Haider his artistic vision, was how he experiences two Danish cities with his oils on canvas - Copenhagen and Aarhus. Haider made an enviable career in Denmark, and his paintings are also in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Belgrade.

Dialogue between two artists, two cities, two artistic expressions - the one as a painter and the other as a photographer.

The arts in the dialogue continued with the musical performance of the duo, which consists of mezzo-soprano Radmila Rajić, a Serbian lady who is known as one of the most successful opera divas on the local theater stage and a accordionist Adam Ørvad - a Dane who lived in the south of Serbia for years and devotedly studied the rhythms of our music.

It was a unique opportunity in which we enjoyed the rhythms of songs from the Danish music milieu, but also melodies such as "She had a deep dream from Kosovo Rada"… Two rhythms, two musical narratives in dialogue and amazing interpretation delighted the guests at the Serbian Embassy.

In her address, the Ambassador thanked her colleagues for accepting the initiative and agreeing to express ourselves artistically together, to play and pay homage to the great Serbian holiday - National Day, with creativity and friendship.

The relationship between the two countries, Denmark and Serbia, our Ambassador  emphasized that her speech is all around us - on the walls, on the video, on the screens, among the musicians on the stage - here are the stories about the relationship and friendship between Serbia and Denmark - watch it, experience it!

She then introduced Dr. Ferrold and invited him on stage.

"This Embassy and this Ambassador always have some unusual, great initiatives that bring us together in friendship and joy. Last year we built a library together in all languages of the world. I thought it couldn’t get any better than that for an Embassy. But this today is such that I am speechless. Thank you. I am proud, Your Excellency, that you have been accepted into the ranks of the Bluetooth cult, a precious Danish society of the chosen that connects people and nurtures friendship among nations. That's exactly what you're doing. "

"I was in Serbia for the first time. I have been to 156 other countries as well. In front of you are my personal impressions, my experience. In one word - you have to see Serbia, you absolutely have to! "