Festival of Local Cultures
The Institute conducted in 2017 a series of visits to Lichtenstein’s, Iceland’s and Norway’s small towns and villages in order to explore the lives, habits and particularities of the local population.
The team was received by Mrs Walburga Matt, Director of Museum Mura, who enthusiastically introduced to us the life, work and customs of Lichtenstein from the historical and present-day perspective. Mrs Matt showed us around the museum, which disposes of around 10’000 exhibits, what makes it the largest collection of objects and equipment in Liechtenstein. The team also met with Mr René Schierscher, Secretary General at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Justice and Culture, who delivered a talk about the history and architecture of the town Eschen as well as invited us to visit the unique annual classic guitar festival (LIGITA).
In Iceland, the Institute’s team visit was facilitated by the hospitality of local government in Siglufjordur (Fjallabyggð). Mrs Linda Lea presented us books and translated fliers of the region as well as invited us to the Folk music festival. Of most importance was, however, the Herring festival, which takes place in the beginning of August since 1991. Herring plays a significant role in Siglufjordur’ life, which used to be the biggest herring village and contribute greatly to national budget (for some years herring fisheries gave the Icelandic nation almost half of the total export income). Our team had a pleasure to visit the Herring Era Museum, which won the Micheletti Award in 2004. There are exhibitions focused on fishing and salting processes, showing how men and machines transformed herring into meal and oil, as well as those providing the impression of a typical North Iceland herring port.
The Institute established the cooperation with the artistic group from Bergen. Anne Magnussen from Embla Film, together with her dedicated team, visited Warsaw to present their recent achievements in animation. The team revealed insights on their new film ‘The man who knew 75 languages’ and gave us detailed information about the previous Bergen International Festival – Northern Europe’s largest music and theatre festival.
The Institute with cooperation of the Fundacja Erasmus + looks forward to organizing big events in the European capitals, to introduce the beauty of local cultures, promote interest, friendship and new ideas for cooperation.
