CORE COURSE WEEK! CORE COURSE WEEK! CORE COURSE WEEK!

IT'S CORE COURSE WEEK TIME!!!

(me and my phone being positively pumped to explicate CC week)

If you can’t tell, I'm a little excited to recount all the amazing things that happened to me during this week at DIS. For those who are unaware, Core Course Week is a week of school at DIS where your academic studies are entirely dedicated to your Core Course class. You spend 2 days in your host city learning about concepts related to your course, and then 3 days on the road traveling with your professor and fellow classmates to another nearby city! My class is titled Modern Frames: European Art and Cinema, which covers the twin topics of Art and Film throughout the past 150 or so years of European history. Each day this week I attended different events and activities around Denmark for an immersive, thought-provoking, and all around inspiring exploration of contemporary art and cinema within the Danish and greater European landscape. Did I mention that we went on a field trip too?!?

(The interior of Vester Vov Vov, complete with the coolest professor ever)

My first day of class consisted of me riding the metro to the movie theater Vester Vov Vov, one of the few independently-owned cinemas in the city of Copenhagen located in the Vesterbro neighborhood area of town. There we were treated to a screening of Apolonia, Apolonia, a film created by a local Danish director that chronicles the life of the titular painter, Apolonia, over a 13-year long period. Yes, you heard me right. The director of the movie followed her subject for OVER 13 YEARS, collecting over 200 hours of footage and creating a documentary about the adult life of Apolonia as she found her way within the world through the professional practice of painting. Afterwards, we were actually able to meet the director herself, Lea Glob, who gave even more insight regarding the process of creating a film that took nearly 15 years to fully produce. “I knew I wanted to end the movie when it most made sense, and that to me was when Apolonia was on top,” said Lea when asked by one of my classmates about her eventual decision to stop recording any more footage. And if that’s any indication of how wild yet amazing the story of Apolonia is, I would encourage all of you to watch the documentary and be completely blown away(ratings and recommended audience still apply).

(everybody's cool until the japanese steam bath starts growing automotive cables)

After breaking for the day on Monday, we met back up with our class at Copenhagen Contemporary on Tuesday afternoon. This Art Center is dedicated to showcasing all kinds of groundbreaking art pieces from up and coming stars within the contemporary arts sphere in Copenhagen, including large-scale artworks, unique installations, and unforgettable performance art. A favorite of mine was A.A. Murakami's Beyond the Horizon, an installation where giant soap bubbles spewed out of massive mechanical containers at random intervals from a pitch-black room. The art piece itself was part of a larger exhibition in the musuem titled Soft Robots, whose premise invited the audience to reconsider their own perceptions of robots and how new technologies and artworks can blur the lines between man and machine. The whole visit was definitely an experience that burst my brain's own bubble.

(like whaaaat?!?! are you guys seeing this too??)

the front of our double decker bus - our silver chariot to Aarhus

Finally, now we’re on to the meat and potatoes of the week. On Wednesday morning, we meet at the Copenhagen Bus Terminal and boarded a 3 hour- long bus ride for Aarhus, a city located within the Jutland region and the second largest city in Denmark. After dropping our bags off at the hotel we began am impromptu food tour of Aarhus, complete with hot chocolate, fastelavnsboller, wines, cheeses, and pasta(in that exact order of course). Afterwards, we visited the AROS Art Musuem of Aarhus to witness Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama and other artworks we had read, seen and talked about in previous Modern Frames classes. And that was just our first day!

(Your Rainbow Panorama - tell me that's not incredible)

Thursday's events were a blur, but for our final day in Aarhus we woke up to find that snow had over taken the peaceful city. We waited in agony at the breakfast table to figure out whether our itinerary had changed to the travel conditions back to Copenhagen, and unfortunately our instructor made the call to cancel our visit to the countryside to talk to a contemporary Danish painter about his current art practice(hopefully a virtual visit with him is in our future). In spite of that, we were still able to visit the Jelling Stones in, guess where, Jelling, whereafter arriving on site our assistant chaperone plunged into the coolest historical explanation of Danish history ever. Apparently the Jelling Stones are a type of ancient Danish headstone commissioned by the first ever king of Denmark, Gorm, for his wife, Thyra. The stones depict "the transition from Viking paganism to Christianity"and serve as the oldest recorded instance of the 'Denmark' as a nation-state in history. Wildly cool! After that we had lunch at the Jelling Kro, a royal inn designated by the Danish crown to provide food and hospitality to travelers journeying across the whole of Denmark. Finally, we boarded our bus for the last leg of the journey home, and arrived back at the bus terminal after an amazing week of cinema, travel, and art.

(our chaperone describing the Jelling Stones in great detail - his enthusiasm was infectious)

If there was a moment that summed up my feelings and experience of Core Course Week, it basically would be the entirety of my day on Thursday(and you thought I wasn’t going to talk about it!) On Thursday, DIS invited me to do a Student Takeover of the @dis.copenhagen page on Instagram, and from the moment I woke up that morning I was hard set on showcasing my day in as precise of detail as possible. In hindsight I may have gone a little overboard(50+ Instagram Stories a little much, anyone?), but in the moment I was capturing every single thing that I experienced during the day through the eyes and ears of myself and the lens of my camera. I tried to include every classmate from my Core Course who wanted to be included at least once in some capacity(sorry to everyone whose pictures/videos came out bad), but for me by far and away the most enjoyable part of the week was highlighting everyone else's takeaways and favorite parts of the week in Aarhus and Copenhagen. And hey, now I literally have 1,000+ photos to remind myself of these moments!

(a couple stills from my Instragram takeover day on Thursday - longest most amazing day ever)

Overall, I’d say my experience during my Core Course was spectacular, if a little bit taxing. It was so fun and so inspiring to see such amazing artworks and movies both free of charge and in such unique locations, but it definitely was a lot of specific, structured time with not a lot of wiggle room/flexibility. What I did enjoy the most was really getting to know the people in my Core Course better as well as sinking into the larger Denmark area with shared experiences in academic areas that I absolutely adore. As a result of this week, I'm much more excited to bounce ideas of my fellow classmate , discuss important artworks and cinema movements, and make plans outside of the classroom with a group that I know at least everyone’s name in. Long Study Tour Week 1, here we come! Until next time, I hope everyone’s Core Course was just as enjoyable as mine, and that your classes/work/travels around the world are just as fun!

(Name a cooler class group than Modern Frames Group B...yeah I'll wait)