Swedish Press Sample Jun 2017 Vol 88:05

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Swedish Press N Y A

S V E N S K A

www.SwedishPress.com

An International Spotlight on Swedish Film and Music

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June 2017 Vol 88:05 $4.95

05 2017

Inside Roy Andersson’s Studio 24 Sanna Nielsen interview Midsummer

Swedish Press is the world’s leading magazine on all good things Swedish.

An authority on design, business, culture and travel since 1929, Swedish Press delivers insightful news and commentary in a visually striking format. With a nod to the past, and a peek to the future, Swedish Press is your go-to source for updates and inspiration from Sweden.

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4 Letters to the Editor

5 From the Editor’s Desk Swedish Headlines 6 Headline News – Eurovision 2017: Turbulence before Ukraine Plays Host 7 Swedes in the News 10 Landskapsnyheterna

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PRINTED IN CANADA NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE: JUNE 10

Hemma hos 20 Design: The Arctic’s cool new school – House of Knowledge 21 Treats à la Frida Johansson

Business 8 Business News 9 Company File: Vax Records Heritage 11 Midsommar – Folkfest i naturens sköte

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CONTENTS ( June 2017 )

ADVISORY COMMITTEE Björn Bayley, Peter Ladner, Brian Antonson, Christer Garell, Anders & Hamida Neumuller

ADVERTISING visit www.swedishpress.com/advertise-us for advertising rates. Call +1 360 450 5858 or +46 725 607800.

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Swedish Press

Midsummer in Torsstuna. Photo: Conny Sjöström

Feature 12 Inside Studio 24 Interview 14 Sanna Nielsen – Center Stage with Sanna Global Swedes 16 Britta Armstrong and Katarina Keane, Designated Honorary Consul and Vice Consul of Sweden in San Diego Lifestyle 18 Top Sju 19 Music: The Swedish Beethoven

The design of the dining hall takes cues from Sami culture. Photo © Christoffer Thulin & Karl-Johan Bexér at Liljewall Architects

Swedish Press Connects 22 SCA – Swedish Council of America 23 SACC – Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce 24 Embassy of Sweden 25 SWEA – Swedish Women’s Educational Association International 26 MIG Talks – Migrationsverket Road to Community 27 Sameblod (2016) In the Loop 28 Calendar and Events 29 Ads and Info 30 Sista Ordet In conversation with Kim Ly, 100% Swedish on the inside, not so obvious on the outside

Cover image: For the second year in a row, Sanna Nielsen will be hosting Allsång på Skansen from June 27 to August 15. Photo © Karin Törnblom

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Swedish Press | June 2017 3

Inside Studio 24

By Lara Andersson

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oy Andersson’s independent production studio, Studio 24, is nestled in the heart of Stockholm’s Östermalm neighborhood. The studio’s façade is unassuming, leading many passersby to overlook the space, or mistake it for another type of establishment. Recently, cardboard tombstones from a previous set design adorned one of the Studio’s front windows. “[At that time] several people knocked on our door and thought we were a funeral home,” explains office administrator Alba Lange. “People never really know what this place is.”

Roy Andersson, one of Sweden’s most celebrated directors, has enjoyed a long and varied career in the arts. Born in Gothenburg in 1943, Andersson attended the Swedish Film Institute’s Film School in Stockholm at the end of the 1960’s. His first feature Roy Andersson. Photo © Studio 24 length film, A Swedish Love Story, was met with critical acclaim and was an audience favorite, winning the 7th annual Guldbagge Award for Best Film in 1970. After releasing his second film, the dark drama Giliap, in 1975, Andersson took a feature film hiatus and produced many

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award-winning advertisement spots as well as two short films. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that he returned to the feature film format with the first installment of his Living Trilogy, Songs from the Second Floor, followed by You, The Living (2007) and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014), which won the Golden Lion Award at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

“I didn’t always want to be a filmmaker,” Andersson explains.

After a day of shooting the finishing touches for a scene in his upcoming film, he drinks a small glass of red wine. We are sitting in the kitchen, on the second of three stories comprising Studio 24. The space, which used to be a telephone exchange center many years before Andersson acquired it in 1981, is a treasure trove of assorted knickknacks; the shelves and walls are dotted with small statues, books, trophies and ornaments that hint at Andersson’s diverse intellectual interests. “When I was younger, I wanted to be an author, I wanted to be an artist.” He cites the Italian director Vittorio de Sica’s neorealist film, The Bicycle Thief as a major turning point. “I saw it when I was thirteen at a government sponsored film night for youths. I was amazed to see a movie about the poor, not about the heroes. I was also amazed at the adults responsible for organizing the film night for showing us this type of movie…[it was then] I decided I wanted to make movies.”

One can see how Andersson meditates on the plights of average men and women in the short, mostly self-contained tableaux of The Living Trilogy. Marked by long takes, static framing, dark comedy and the dead pan performances of his (mostly) amateur actors, Andersson’s stylistic universe gestures towards Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus – it is cruel, indifferent, absurd and, often times, hilarious.

How does Andersson arrive at such unique worlds?

To create each scene, he first generates images with watercolor and pen. When he has gathered enough vignettes for a film – about forty or more – he hangs them up on one of the studio walls, story boarding the project at hand. The sketches are rough and sparse, but capture the tonality that we later experience in his films. I ask where he finds inspiration for each scene. “[These scenarios] are from life. They are from the books I’ve read, the art I’ve studied. They are me.”

Andersson’s total creative control and intentionality, from conception to execution, is one of the distinguishing factors of his artistry. He and his skilled team of set designers produce the distinctively subdued, gray and beige toned backdrops of each scene from scratch.

Using the tricks of tromp-l’oeil, they give rise to uncanny worlds in the backroom of Studio 24; each street, building and room looks familiar yet undeniably alien. The endpoint of such a controlled endeavor, Andersson explains, is the creation of spaces that come as close to abstraction as possible. As opposed to the “neorealism,” of his early directorial influences, Andersson aims for a sort of “hyperrealism.”

A big part of attaining this goal involves playing with the use of time in his films. In Pigeon (2014), for instance, Andersson inserts Sweden’s 18th Century King Charles XVII into a modern seaside bar. The result is a mild disorientation: we never fully know where we are or when.

“I want to reach a type of timelessness,” Andersson says, “almost like a cartoon.”

Andersson approaches his work with sharp humor and playful simplicity, rendering his films, as he says, almost “cartoonish” in their purity. “We all think that when we are adults we are strong and not vulnerable. We have everything under control,” he says. “Under that façade, we are all vulnerable children. And we are thirsty and we are hungry and we want to be loved and we want to love.” By reflecting these truths in film format, Andersson hopes that audiences will take the time to think. “It is very hard to make movies these days that have a moral responsibility, because there is no time for it. There is no money for it. But I still try to create something that will survive and even point out how you can also spend your life with any meaning [here, he pauses and smiles]… you’re raising very complicated questions,” he laughs.

Andersson is now well under way in the production of his upcoming feature film, which will be his first after the conclusion of Living Trilogy. Like his previous projects, which have taken upwards of four years to complete, this one will take time and patience. “This film is separate, it has its own power,” he explains. “In a way, it’s a summary of what I’ve made before. The title is “On Endlessness,” in the sense that existence is endless. There are so many destinies. It is impossible to describe all of them. I pick out some to show how rich and varied it all is.” We can look forward to seeing it upon its release in 2019.

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Hemma hos

The Arctic’s cool new school – House of Knowledge

[Design]

By Kristi Robinson

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n Lapland, about 65km north of the Arctic Circle, is a town called Gällivare.With a population of about 18,000, Gällivare is about to experience an urban boom when the neighbouring community of Malmberget, a mining town, closes all its schools and functions to join Gällivare.

To welcome the influx of new residents, the coolest high school in Sweden, the ‘House of Knowledge’ (Kunskaphuset) will be opening in 2019.

The House of Knowledge was a collaboration between Liljewall Architects offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm, and MAF Architects in Luleå.

Lars Olausson, one of the leading architects on the project who works in Liljewall’s Gothenburg office was happy to share with Swedish Press some details about the building and the design of House of Knowledge.

The 23,000 sq.m. (about 247,500 sq.ft.) high school can accommodate 800 students, and will offer a mix of technological and theoretical classes, with programs for adult students, and students with learning disabilities.

The first five floors of the building

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The staircase in the central hall resembles an open mine.

are dedicated to classrooms and learning, and the 6th floor holds a large conference area and sauna with an expansive view of the Dundret mountain ski area.

The building’s layout was influenced by the Malmberget mines. The staircase in the central hall is the most dramatic and spirited example of this.

Called ‘The Day Break’, the staircase that will be made from steel from the mine, and takes the form of an open mine with its bold chiseled angles, is painted the color of dark charcoal. It is the connecting piece for all areas of the school and provides a place of respite to sit and rest while looking into the open fire in the great fireplace.

Inspiration for the House of Knowledge was also found in the wilderness of Sarek outside Gällivare. Olausson explained that the architects stayed

in a Sami tent at Laponia National Park to take in the elements and colors of nature that were then incorporated into the design of the school. The architects were also influenced by motifs that they found in Sami culture. The ceiling of the food court and cafe display a Sami pattern, and the overall ambience of the school is infused with Sami culture.

While paying homage to the local mining industry and honoring Sami culture, Liljewall architects also made sustainability a priority. The school is designed so that it consumes very little energy. The architects were conscious that the highest energy consumption happens during the building process and so they did things to minimize this like using locally sourced materials to cut back on transport. The concrete and steel used for the building’s foundation and structure are from the local mine.

The wood used throughout the school for laminated columns and wood beamed ceilings on the interior, and to frame the glass paneled façade on the exterior comes from a nearby supplier. Construction on the House of Knowledge will begin January 2018.

Below: The House of Knowledge is a series of vertical angles inspired by the local mines.

All photos © Christoffer Thulin & Karl-Johan Bexér at Liljewall Architects.

Hemma hos

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lanen var att åka iväg och testa livet som köksmästare för svenska ambassadören i Washington DC i ett år, sju år senare är jag fortfarande kvar!

Jag brukar säga att jag har drömjobbet som jag aldrig sökte. Ibland gäller det att vara på rätt plats vid rätt tillfälle.

Jag har alltid älskat livet på resande fot, att kunna se världen och har gjort kockyrket till ett ypperligt val.

Efter mina studier på Hotell och Restauranglinjen på Ester Mosessons gymnasium i Göteborg tilldelades jag ett stipendium som tog mig på ett av mina första äventyr i karriären. Sex månader i Antwerpen Belgien på två av Antwerpens bästa restauranger Kommilfoo och Bernardin.

Jag fattade stort tycke för utlandsupplevelse i Belgien och bestämde mig för att testa mina vingar igen.

Denna gång i Rom, Italien. Italien ledde till Österrike, Idre och Stockholm Sverige, vidare till Nya Zeeland.

Väl hemma i Sverige efter år av vistelser i utlandet råkade jag ut för en singelolycka med bil som kom att förändra mitt liv. Det som alltid varit självklart, var inte längre så självklart. Synen på livet har alltid varit att allting händer av en anledning och hade det inte varit för olyckan så kanske jag aldrig hamnat här i Washington DC. Planerna på att byta yrke som fanns innan olyckan var inte längre där. Efter nästan ett års rehabilitering fick jag återgå till något som redan satt i ryggmärgen – kockyrket.

Inte bara ett arbete utan en livsstil.

Efter en tid på båt och restaurang i Göteborg hamnade jag på Park Aveny Café. Köksmästare var Ola Andersson som via Leif Mannerström

[Treats]

à la Frida Johansson

kom att bli min biljett till köksmästartjänsten som kock för svenska ambassadören i Washington DC! Som köksmästare för svenska ambassadören har jag haft äran att laga mat till kungligheter, politiker, kända atleter och artister. Medverkat i amerikansk och svensk TV, tidningar och på en hel rad olika spännande event.

Att arbeta som köksmästare för svenska ambassadören Björn

Lyrvall är fantastiskt roligt, brett och givande. Det är en ära att få representera Sverige, svensk och nordisk matkonst dagligen och jag försöker via min mat att lyfta fram svenska traditioner och råvaror.

För mig är matlagning en konst och det är helhetsupplevelsen som räknas. Allt från att gästen känner lukten av maten till uppläggning och smak. Vi äter med ögat först och där av lägger jag stor del på utförandet av matens färger, höjd och form.

Enligt Anne Lundberg från TV-programmet Landgång i SVT, är ryktet att jag är Washingtons bästa ambassad-kock – det var ett roligt omdöme att få.

Följ mig gärna på instagram Swedishembassychef.

Av Frida Johansson

Kolapaj Ingredienser: Madelbotten: • 125 g mandelmassa • 75 g rumstempererat smör • 0,5 dl strösocker • 1 st ägg • 2 dl mjöl • 0,5 tsk bakpulver • 2 msk apelsinjuice Kola: • 2 dl ljus sirap • 3 dl vispgrädde • 2 dl strösocker • 150 g smör (i kuber) • 100 g smör (kallt i kuber) • 1,5 tsk vaniljsocker

Så lagar du: Sätt ugnen på 175°C . Finriv mandelmassan och vispa samman med det rumstempererade smöret. Tillsätt sedan ägget, därefter strösocker och apelsinjuice. Rör samman de torra ingredienserna och tillsätt i mandelmassesmeten. Smörj en pajform och bred sedan ut smeten i formen. Grädda bottnen i mitten av ugnen cirka 7 minuter eller till den börjar få färg på ytan. Tag ut bottnen och låt svalna.

Blanda därefter samman sirap, vispgrädde, socker och smör i en tjockbottnad kastrull, koka upp. När kolan kokar sänker du värmen och låter kolan sjuda till den tjocknar cirka 30 minuter eller till den är 121°C. Har du ingen termometer, gör kulprovet. Droppa lite av kolan i ett glas med kallt vatten, går kolan att forma till en kula är kolasmeten färdig.

När kolan uppnått sin temperatur tillsätts det kalla smöret och vaniljsockret. Låt kolan svalna något innan den tillsätts på den avsvalnade mandelbottnen. Ställ kallt för att stelna.

Servera gärna kolapajen med någon god bärig sorbet eller snabbt och lätt med lite lättvispad grädde och färska bär.

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