Fjender: The Enemies Project: Denmark - March 2014 in London & Copenhagen

Featuring three readings and two exhibitions across two cities, Fjender was the most ambitious Enemies project international programme at the time of its happening, and pivotal to the development of our curatorial model. Fjender was a long term collaborative engagement between contemporary Danish and British based poets, supported by the Arts Council International Development fund, the Danish Cultural Agency and the Danish Embassy in London. Beginning in March 2014, the first instalment of the the Fjender project was an extraordinary month of readings and exhibitions across London and Copenhagen with its focus on building communities and collaborations across nations and languages. At the heart of Fjender was the visit to London of 3 of Europe's most brilliant innovative poets; Morten Søndergaard, Cia Rinne & Martin Glaz Serup.

Fjender at the Rich Mix Arts Centre - March 14th 2014

The flagship event of Fjender, featured new collaborations from Martin Glaz Serup & Peter Jaeger, Cia Rinne & Chrissy Williams and Morten Søndergaard & SJ Fowler alongside the Danes also sharing their own work. There was also series of brand new commissions from UK based poets, in response to the concepts and themes of Morten Sondergaard’s amazing http://www.wordpharmacy.com with new work by James Davies, Prudence Chamberlain, Philip Terry, Claire Trevien, Fabian MacPherson and Stephen Emmerson, who presented his Neurolinguasulphate.

Wordpharmacy exhibition at the Hardy Tree Gallery

From March 15th to 31st, for the first time ever in London, the remarkable Wordpharmacy was exhibited for the Fjender project. The Hardy Tree gallery was be turned into a fully functioning poetic chemist’s, a pharmacy for the avant garde poet, replete with stocked shelves, white-coated pharmacist and a near endless supply of word-drugs. www.hardytreegallery.com & to celebrate the Wordpharmacy exhibition a half dozen British based poets were commissioned to write, or conceive of, original works that respond to the ideas and concepts of the project. On this evening brand new work from Alison Gibb, David Berridge, Claire Trevien, Andy Spragg, Prudence Chamberlain, Fabian MacPherson & of course, Morten Søndergaard himself was shared.

Fjender in Copenhagen

For the finishing stage of Fjender, the project visited Copenhagen over a week at the start of April 2014, with readings at Ark Books and the Danish Literature Haus and featuring a small exhibition of SJ Fowler's VIking concrete poetry and further readings by Peter Jaeger, Morten Sondergaard and Martin Glaz Serup.

Martin Glaz Serup & Peter Jaeger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BV0oN1VO_8
Martin Glaz Serup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUXGvwLfiL8
Peter Jaeger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brXjkt8_vbE
Morten Søndergaard & I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1lf9euqvrE

& the original collaboration written for Fjender by Morten Sondergaard and SJ Fowler was published by the Irish journal the Bohemyth 
http://thebohemyth.com/2014/05/06/morten-sondergaard-sj-fowler/

Thanks to the Danish Embassy in Londonhttp://storbritannien.um.dk/, the Danish Literature Agencyhttp://www.kulturstyrelsen.dk/english/, Arts Council England and Ark Books http://www.arkbooks.dk/ for supporting Fjender 

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