Focus on culture when the King and Queen visit Belgium

Culture will be a focal point during the King and Queen’s state visit to Belgium on 20-22 May. During the visit there will be a concert by Nils Petter Molvær and his band, several exhibitions and the presentation of a digital music archive.

Interest in Norwegian jazz and electronic music has grown in recent years. The international music press has described the Norwegian jazz scene as one of the most exciting and innovative in Europe. Thus the state visit is a good opportunity to present modern-day Norway and Norwegian art and culture to a foreign public.

Nils Petter Molvær will perform at the reception hosted by the King and Queen at the Musée d’Art ancien (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts). During the concert, which will be held in the Rubens Room, Molvær will play together with Reidar Skår (keyboard), Rune Arnesen (percussion) and Pål Strangefruit (DJ/sound compositions).

There will be an architecture exhibition (the new Library of Alexandria – Snøhetta) in the City Hall in the Grand-Place. The exhibition, which has been produced by the Norwegian Museum of Architecture, is intended to be an echo of the past, the interpretation of a myth and a journey into the future.

The design exhibition Today, in the Galerie Vizo, will be opened by Queen Sonja and Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen. This is the first time contemporary design is being exhibited in connection with a state visit. The catalogue, which is in English, French and German, and has in addition been translated into Dutch, has received financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Music Export Norway is giving a presentation of the Norwegian digital music archive Phonofile in co-operation with the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Norwegian Trade Council. The archive contains about 47 000 Norwegian recordings, from which sound files of a professional standard can be downloaded.

Norway’s last archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson (1480-1538), is buried in the Church of St. Gummarus in Lier, Belgium. On 21 May the King will unveil a memorial plaque in honour of the archbishop, which has been sculpted by Marit Wiklund.

At the Grieg exhibition at the Musée des instruments de musique, which is being arranged in co-operation with the Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen, there will be a concert by Håvard Gimse (piano) and Ragnhild Heiland Sørensen (soprano).