Artful fancy at Louisiana Literature

Later this week, Team C-print will be heading to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art to attend the annual Louisiana Literature festival, which this year takes place from August 20 to 23. In order to navigate the four-day festival, packed with more, otherwise unmissable, series of conversations, interviews and performances than can fit into even the most optimistic of festivalgoers' agendas, we present our top picks of what not to miss, with a more extensive report soon to follow, on which the team will be tag-teaming.

Photo: Lousiana Musuem

Scouring this year’s programme we are setting our expectations for this year’s festival high. The programme boasts an impressive roster offering up numerous appearances by some of the most talked about authors of the past year, at least. As regards the festival itself, we take note that, as with previous years, there is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary practices broadening perceptions of the formative reach of literature and inviting festivalgoers to delve into literary experiences beyond well-established formats. 

A highlight is undoubtedly Anne Carson who will be performing her seminal literary work Autobiography of Red. The entry of yours truly into Carson’s writings came via Sappho’s fragmentary poetry. Further studies of her works also resulted, or rather kicked off, a C-print interview with Swedish artist Jon Ek. And ever since attending Radioart’s performance based on Carson’s, Red doc>, the sequel to Autobiography of Red, at Accelerator in 2023 we have been eagerly awaiting for the opportunity to view more performances of her works. We are beyond extatic at the incredible opportunity to now see Carson perform her work live. That she will be accompanied by amongst others, actor Ben Whishaw and artist Robert Currie is an added bonus. Later on in the evening Carson and Whishaw will also take part in the Magic in the Lake event performing readings from Derek Jarman's Modern Nature and Carson's writings.

Corina Wahlin

We have been reading and revisiting Katie Kitamura’s works since the release of A Separation. Last year saw the release of her latest novel, Audition. With a precise, yet stylistically simple prose, her writing draws the reader into her characters’ eerie, dream-like state. An intriguing author we cannot wait to learn more from, both in her interview slot but also her conversation with Vincenzo Latronico. In addition to this, we will want to catch an interview with Nelio Biedermann, author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Lázár, which has also been one of the C-print team’s summer-reads. 

To further get into the spirit of the festival we will be making our way to the event Magic in the Lake Garden. Engaging in folk magic rituals performed by the Midsummer Group with Olga Ravn at its core as well as taking part in a collective poetic recitation with Zahna Siham Benamor are two of the performances we are looking forward to. Because why should our collective immersion into literary works restrain itself to pages of a book or book-club conversations?

As much as we eagerly anticipate hearing from the more established literary figures we are also eager to check out Lucia Odoom’s interview with debut authors, Nana Fatou, Feline Kamber and Rosalinde Mynster. 

While literature will be on the agenda for most visitors during those four days, the event provides an opportunity to view the ongoing exhibitions which are reason alone to visit the museum. In between events we will most likely be keeping ourselves busy entranced by Lucian Freud’s portraits and entering Sophie Calle’s universe presented in the exhibition Something Missing. 

To round it off, it is a firm belief of the C-print team that no visit to the Louisiana Museum during summertime, is ever complete without taking a swim at the nearby beach. So we are bookmarking that too. 

Corina Wahlin