On June 14 and 15, ARS BALTICA immersed itself in the vibrant festival that are the Fehmarnbelt Days, a bi-annual two-day event that tours the Baltic Sea Region towards Scandinavia, this year hosted by the Hanse city of Lübeck in Germany, celebrating German-Scandinavian friendship under the motto 'Stronger together'.
The Fehmarnbelt Days 2025 took place on the banks of the river Trave surrounding the Musik- und Kongresshalle (MuK) Lübeck, offering citizens a colourful display of initiatives from local to EU-level to explore and get in contact with personally, listen to panel discussions, concerts, play games, learn, eat and overall exchange. ARS BALTICA was situated with a fair booth in the 'Culture Cosmos', the BSR Cultural Pearls project it is a partner of just one booth over.
The 'Frequenz Festival der Klangkunst' Kiel represented by Tarek Krohn, the 'The Moving Suitcase' artist project represented by artists Susanne Koch and Silke Lazarević and Arthur Bondar as well as Oksana Yushko as artists-and-photographers-in-residence through ARS BALTICA at the Nordkolleg in Rendsburg under the title 'ART Bridges Baltic' followed our invitation to present themselves at the ARS BALTICA fair booth.
All of our guests talked about their respective work on connecting people across and despite borders, to citizens, ministry and funding officials alike at the booth and while exploring the festival grounds - the 'moving suitcase' also in a literal sense with a suitcase full of experiences and ideas in hand. The atmosphere was relaxed and inspiring with very insightful one-on-one exchanges in hot early summer weather. And even when the rain came, there were still groups of people out exploring, coming together, moving closer and huddling together to shelter from the rain but not from the exchange.
The ABCD panel discussion by ARS BALTICA on the topic 'Raise your Voice - Democracy and Participation' moderated by the NDR was a moving example of the latter: The audience joined the panelists, namely Cathy Kietzer (Danish Local Politician & former City President of Kiel), Uta Röpcke (Spokeswoman for Cultural Policy of the Green Party), Henning Schumann (City President of Lübeck), Timo Gaarz (District Administrator Ostholstein) and Marcus Hagemann (Director ARS BALTICA), on stage where it was dry, overcoming borders and deepening the exchange.
We thank our panelists, partners, the Fehmarnbelt Days team and everyone visiting the festivities for bringing these days to life and look forward to our ongoing exchange!
The next Fehmarnbelt Days will take place 2027 in Helsingborg - by the way a BSR Cultural Pearl of 2025, learn more about their actions towards social resilience through culture and dive into the BSR Cultural Pearls programme during the Fehmarnbelt Days including the 'Pearls of the sound' choir from Helsingborg here.
