Memory of Festival of Fantastics
by Alison KnowlesThe Roskilde Festival was the best. Here are a few thoughts on why it was such a success.
Most Fluxus Festivals depend on a concert hall. Because of this the artists involved would arrive in town the night before and fall back on the classical pieces performed in a line along the lip of the stage. We know these pieces so well and love to do them. However, in Roskilde in the Viking Museum we were surrounded by ships which inspired us to take off into uncharted seas! We heard the sea piped in to the hall as a background for poetry. We watched Jackson Mac Low perform with excellence his phonemes and phrases. Another big plus about Roskilde was the fact that our works were done outdoors. Except for Nice this is rarely the case. And why were the pieces in Roskilde so dynamic - the piles of stones that made sculptures down to the sea, a dress for 30 dancers climbing over the steeple of a church, or going through a supermarket? No, it was simply that strangers and inhabitants of town were ready to help at every corner. Another point that strikes me is how fortunate we were to work not only with one another as usual but that it was friends that ran the institutions, the museum and the galleries we presented in.
My memory is that the festival went for at least a week and the particular people to be thanked are Marianne Bech, Valborg Norby, Galleri Sct. Agnes and Eric Andersen.
Valuable as well is the catalog with a little known work by Jackson (”Tree Movie”) and Anne Noel’s (”I graphic”).
On this occasion I was introduced to Gammel Dansk, a close 2nd to Unterberg.
Is it too late to do this again?