Category Archives: Spotted in Sønderborg

Jens Funder-Nielsen: The H.C. Andersen Artist

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Jens Funder-Nielsen has through a life-time been an author and artist of many media. Having grown up in Egernsund he moved to Copenhagen and Esbjerg to study and work, before returning to Sonderborg. We found out about him via a tip off from a friend who has bought some of his works of art to decorate her house. We wanted to learn more, so a quick phone call resulted in an appointment made to visit him in his house a couple of days later.

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On arriving at his house you can immediately see that the fairytales of H.C. Andersen are some of the things that inspire him the most. The items that had originally caught my eyes were the gold-plated HC Andersen fairytale ornaments. But that is not the only H.C. Andersen-inspired items he makes. There are also paper mobiles and paper cuttings, some of which you can buy and others which you can buy books with patterns to make your own.

Besides books about paper clippings inspired by H.C. Andersen, the 14 books he has published also include decorations for Christmas, table decorations for parties, and mobiles on other themes. Looking through the books the patterns are really detailed and intricate. A work of art in themselves!

His paintings are very colourful, covering many whimsical subjects in a childlike manner. You can see a few of his paintings here and as is to be expected, the local events and landscape are also an inspiration. If you have ideas he might also be open for making some on commission.

If you are interested in his work, do think about going to visit him. Jens and his wife are very friendly people. For many years they have been producing and selling art and books out of their house in Dybbøl. At an age of 81 years Jens is getting on in years so there are no regular opening times. But make a call like we did and you can sort a visit out very easily.

Jens also mentioned that every Christmas they have an open week, so you can also keep your eyes peeled on the local newspapers for more information about that when we get closer to December. His smaller items are perfect for giving as gifts, especially if you have foreign family and friends.

Oh! And just so you don’t say we didn’t warn you! If you visit I can promise you that you won’t allow yourself to leave empty-handed! We left with a small collection of items: some for us, and some to give as gifts.

See Jens Funder-Nielsen’s website for more information.

Sønderborg’s new multicultural centre on the harbour

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sonderborg multicultural house

One of the key buildings in Frank Gehry’s Masterplan for Sønderborg is the multicultural centre that will sit at a prominent location in Sonderborg with views of both the harbour and the historical city centre.

There were two architect companies that took part in the contest to design the future centre. It has now been decided by the municipality which submission is the winning bid. And from the pictures published I think it looks like a really nice project.

The winning proposal for the new multicultural centre on the waterfront is created in collaboration between AART Architects, Zeni Architects, Alectia and Hoffmann.

Sonderborg havnefront

The centre will be built around the old warehouse (Ewers pakhus) that is the only old building left on the harbour at the moment.

The lonely warehouse on the harbour

The warehouse in is a pretty bad state but I think that once it has been restored it will add character and charm to the brand new building and be a physical reminder of the times where the harbour of Sonderborg was a bustling industrial port.

The building will bring together under one roof several cultural institutions, and create a place where the focus is on learning as well as other cultural and recreational activities. The building will amongst other things house Sønderborg Library, The German Library and South Jutlands Artschool.

sonderborg library

The building will be 5500m2 and it is expected that 1000 people will use the building daily and the budget cost of the centre is almost 100 million kroner.

sonderborg cafe library

Ambitious Waterfront Hotel in Sønderborg

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The plans for the harbour front in Sønderborg does not lack ambition. One of the pieces of the “Gehry’s Masterplan” that has gotten a bit more concrete lately is the hotel and waterpark.

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If built the hotel will be 85 meters tall with 18 floors. That means that from the top floor you will be able to see all the way to Aabenraa and Flensburg! Furthermore the current plan is that the top floor should be open to the public (crossing our fingers for this to happen). To get an idea of what the view will be like Zoom Film made this visualisation:

The hotel will have 210 rooms, conference facilities and – look at this – a water park both with space for fun and games as well as wellness and saunas for the well-off tourists.

Waterpark in Sønderborg

The building is design by Henning Larsen, one of Denmark’s architectural icons within the last couple of decades (or his company, Mr. Larsen passed away June 22nd this year). Henning Larsen Architects have previously made The Opera House and ITU in Copenhagen and The Wave in Vejle.

Read more about the project from:

Henning Larsen Architects
Press release from 2010
August newsletter

House of Knowledge – TeleBilling, KPMG & Rambøll

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On the harbour of Sønderborg a new building is rapidly taking shape. It’s another of the pieces from Frank Gehry’s Masterplan for the harbour front of Sønderborg. The plan is to transform the harbour into a vibrant new part of town.

Sønderborg Videnshus / House of Knowledge

The first block was the white residential building (to the right in the picture above) – this time it’s a bronze “House of Knowledge” – Videnshus in Danish – (to the left). The building will be the new corporate residence for local IT company TeleBilling, the local branch of KPMG accounting and Rambøll engineering.

house of knowledge

Recently TeleBilling made a film of what the building looks like now as they are still working on the interior. (Skip to 0:23)

The offices there will have amazing views up and down Alssund and you couldn’t blame the office workers for sometimes stopping what they are doing to stare at the beautiful scenery.

interior house of knowledge

The building has 6 floors and 4750 square meters of office space. The roof will be fitted with solar panels and will comply with the 2020 standard of buildings, which means it’s very energy efficient.

If everything goes according to plan the three residents should be moving in in November. Let’s hope they have an open house reception, so the rest of us can come in and be jealous of their sparkling new office.

Read more at Byens Havn

Piet Hein: Kuben – Spheres within cubes

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Roundabout art. It seems that where people build a roundabout in Denmark there is an urge to put something in the middle.

One of the better examples of roundabout art is the cube with spheres outside Augustenborg. The sculpture is made by Piet Hein, a scientist, architect and poet who created many interesting things.

On the way to work we pass by it every day and I got curious about it.

The sculpture, called Kuben, was inaugurated in 2008, exactly 20 years after Peit Hein had finished his drawings for it. The artist himself never saw it finished as he passed away in 1996. It weighs 5 tons and stands 7 meters tall. The sculpture is funded by Bitten og Mads Clausens Foundation.

The company contracted to create the sculpture, Royal-Tee, has some interesting photos from the construction and positioning of it. Here is one of showing how the different sections are produced:

Kuben being constructed by the company Royal Tee.

Whereever the wind takes us – a film about an old boat

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Missing summer? Maybe I got something that can bring you back. Imagine sailing where the wind takes you in Atinga, a wooden boat built 51 years ago that has been passed down for three generations.

Dänische Südsee from Lut ze.

I came across this amazing video of three guys on a boat sailing in the Danish South Sea – our corner of the Baltic Sea. The film on vimeo is just titled “Dänische Südsee” and that’s about it, so I got curious. I asked the filmmaker Lutz a couple of questions:

Can you introduce yourself?

I am originally from Berlin but currently I am living in Göteborg, studying Interaction Design. This city is just perfect for sailing. Lots of wind (sadly even more rain), many beautiful little rock islands in front of the coast and almost more boats than people. Until this year, I was only sailing on lakes, which is just not the same as sailing on the sea. Besides sailing I love many other outdoor sports. like climbing, hiking, biking.

Who are the crew and are they always the same?

We were three people on the boat, my sister Karola, our friend Tilman and me. It was our first trip together. Tilman was our skipper, since he had the most experience on the boat, but we were switching roles all the time.

Tell me about the boat in the video?

The boat is called the “Atinga”. It belongs to Tilman’s dad, who himself inherited it from his dad. I don’t know so much about it, but it is a real beauty! Kind of slow, but really comfortable and really good tempered. Everything is made out of wood, even the hull and the mast. We had quite heavy winds, and the boat was squeaking and moaning all the time. It’s a self constructed boat as far as i know, about 50 years old, but I don’t know who exactly build it.

Where did you go on the trip we see in the video?

We started in Høruphav, going wherever the wind and rain blew us. 🙂 Since we only had 5 days and the winds were already pretty strong, we stayed south of Fyn to avoid the huge waves.

Where else do you like to sail to?

I really would like to make a longer trip when I finish my studies. Probably down to the Mediterranean Sea – if I can find the time. Until then I will just make some daily and weekend trips in the skerries off Göteborg and Bohuslän. My University has a sailing club that owns two really nice “Albin Express” boats, which are a lot of fun to sail in.

How did you film this? Do you often make film?

Actually it was my first try in making a short film in years. I used a Pentax k-7 dslr with two wideangle lenses. Most of the shots were done handheld. But I am planing to do some more stuff. Right now I’m working on a small video project for an university course, which will be about a quite ambivalent street here in Göteborg. And I’m planning to shoot a climbing movie of some spots in the region around Göteborg.

Do you have a website I can link to if people want to know more about you?

Not yet. At least not for my filming stuff but you can check my Flickr page. I recently discovered an old Rollei 35 and Contax from my grandfather, which I use a lot and I post some pictures to Flickr from time to time. And I’m on Facebook.

Great video and story, Lutz and thank you for sharing!

The same day I got another email from Jens from Lüneburg, who is owner of the boat and father of Tilman. He wrote more facts about the boat Atinga.

Constructor: Ernst Lehfeld
Built in 1961
Type: Knickspannt Kielkreuzer
Material: Plywood
Length: 8,00 m
Width: 2,50 m
Depth: 1,05 m
Weight: 2,5 t
Mast: 9,00 m
Sail : 25-35 square meters
Engine: Nanni Diesel 2 cylinders
Speed 10 PS

Culture Capital Jury Visiting Sønderborg

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The jury deciding who will be Denmark’s European Capital of Culture 2017 is making the decision tomorrow, Friday at around 4pm.

Before that 4 members of the jury visited the two contestants; Aarhus and Sønderborg. Yesterday it was Aarhus, today it was Sønderborg.

The jury had spent the night at Dyvig Badehotel and they started their tour by visiting Danfoss, the biggest employer of the area, where they met with Jørgen Mads Clausen, and some of the local Danish politicians as well as Torsten Albig the Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein. Read more about that in Der Nordschleswiger (in German).

After that they took the bus with museums director Peter Dragsbo who told them about the area’s history, architecture and culture.

The bus took them to the art centre Augustiana where they met with 40 German and Danish artists and discussed the local art scene.

Lunch was had on the good ship of Shalimar where they talked to local people, including Ann, so I’m sure they were well entertained 🙂

And when they returned to port the BMX guys from Flensburg were practicing their jumps for Sonderborg Culture Night tomorrow:

They moved on to the former shelter now known as X-Bunker to hear about the projects that take place there. By now they had to be coffee thirsty so at Rønhave Plads they were offered a real Sønderjysk Kaffebord with too many cakes to try.

From here they moved on to Dybbøl Banke and on to Alsion where they met and heard the symphony orchestra practice.

And that was it for the visit for the jury to Sonderborg. Tomorrow it’s on to the big finale in the Ministry of Culture in Copenhagen where both cities will have a last attempt at swaying the jury to honour their home town with the title of European Capital of Culture.

Sonderborg is sending a small team to Copenhagen to present and amongst the mayor, artistic director and cultural director is Ann, to tell her story of how she moved to Sonderborg! How cool is that?

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I went to see this small delegation off at Sonderborg Airport where the new local airline DAT had been kind enough to sponsor the flights for all the delegation.

Cross your fingers for them doing well and go see the declaration of the winner Friday at 4pm at Town Hall Square.

Picture of boat by Chistian Have. The first two pictures in this post are used without permission from the photographers – I’m in the process of asking the rights holders.

Multiplicity of Culture (Video)

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A group that calls itself Anonyme Sønderborggensere (Anonymous Sonderborgians) has created a stunning video that shows some cultures in Sønderborg that are a bit underground or in the dark for one reason or another.

I haven’t figured out who they are, or whether they are connected to Sonderborg2017 but they make some amazing shots. My favorite shot is the BMX rider speeding along the road shot from a tall building (or crane).

What’s your favorite bit? And do you recognize the different locations?

Flounder In Hand – Günter Grass Sculpture

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If you have been for a stroll along the waterfront in Sonderborg you have probably come by the statue “Butt Im Griff” by Günter Grass – here’s a story of the sculpture and the man who created it.

Günter Grass: "Butt im Griff", Sønderborg

Günter Grass is a German-Kashubian Nobel Prize winner in literature and is widely regarded as Germany’s most famous living writer. Apart from being a novelist he is also a poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist and, as we can experience in Sonderborg, a sculptor.

His background and life story is remarkable to say the least. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk) in ’27 and as a 17 year old Nazi sympathizer served in Waffen SS during the last years of WW2 where he got wounded and ended up in an American prisoner of war camp. His native Danzig was captured by the Soviet Army and later annexed by Poland, which expelled its German population. So Grass could not return home and found refuge in West Germany.

During the revolution when the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain came down around 1989 Grass opposed the unification of East and West Germany arguing that a unified Germany would become militant and threaten world peace.

In April of this year the 84-year old Grass can still cause controversy. He released a poem about Germany selling a submarine to Israel that enraged the Israelis so much that they have declared him a Persona Non Grata.

Grass works his way through a topic, story or theme by using different artforms over a number of years. He usually starts out working with a theme in graphic design, then moves on to sculptures and, finally, writing the story. That was also the case with the flounder where he first created engravings, then the sculpture was created and later he turned it into the novel The Flounder.

Grass explained the sculpture like this: “The talking fish is like a book. As a book the flounder keeps and tells the story. It gives information, advises and predicts the future. It creates discussions and is pugnacious itself.”

The fishhand on Sonderborg Harbour

The sculpture was bought by the municipality of Sonderborg to go on the newly built promenade at the waterfront in 2004 and to reveal it the whole Danish royal family was in town. If you read Danish there is an entertaining article about the day with the crown prince hugging a grillbar owner and the royal ship not being able to pass Christian X bridge because too many people standing on it.

First picture is by Arne List. For more pictures see this flickr gallery.

Sønderborg in a Different Light

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Sometimes photographs can make things you see every day look new and interesting. That’s how I felt when I came across Anne-Kathrin Pries‘ pictures where she paints with light in Sønderborg.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepries/5640249004/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepries/6248890085/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepries/6696522799/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepries/6658446197/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepries/6034996397/in/photostream

I asked Anne-Kathrin a couple of questions about these photos:

How did you get the idea for these light photos?

I get inspired by other photographers. I saw some night pictures where they used a torch to paint/lighten up the foreground, and I tried that and was hooked. On Flickr.com I found other people from around the world who take lightpainting pictures.

The light photos you take have a very magical feel to them. How do you create them?

I take these pictures in a completely dark environment, preferably where there are no city lights.
I take a longetime exposure (keeping the camera lense open for a long time) which can take up to 10 minutes if it is dark enough and I walk into the picture with a light source while my camera stands on the tripod and captures the movement of my light.
First I started to paint with common torches but you can use everything that lights up. I found some toys like a Star Wars sword, which is very useful. I got some good results with steel wool too. It burns very brightly and can illuminate a big area.

Do you get these photos in one take or do you spend whole nights running around with saber swords and sparklers?

The most exciting part is that you never know how the picture will look like in the end. It depends on how much light is around or if it’s full moon, then you won’t have so much time for painting and when it is really dark you can often sit for hours and wait until the camera has collected enough light. The hardest part is to focus when it is dark, you can’t really do it … sometimes I spend hours and afterwards I find out that my picture isn’t sharp :-/. Another thing is you can’t really see what you paint or where in the photo you place your light… but after some time you get a feeling for it.

Which is your favourite photo and why?

It is this one. I used a bicycle light for that and this was my second try in painting people. It is really difficult cause you need to turn off the light, after drawing one arm, to go back and draw the head, and so on. It can easily turn into a big squiggle. For this couple I just needed only one try and it was perfect … I didn’t think I would get this.

One last thing, what’s you favorite place in Sonderborg and why?

My favorite place is this one. I love the water and the beach, I take most of my pictures there:-)

See more photos by Anne-Kathrin on her website or her flickr account.