Kulmen

A collage of photos from Kulmen's gig a the cultural centre in Handen on Thursday evening. They describe their music as Indie, pop, shoegaze, trad. All their songs are in Swedish. The members are Stefanie Kasper (keyboard), Sanna Lindström, Johannes Borg (guitar), Dennis Johansson and Charlie Persson. www.kulmen.band/

Soppa&Surr

Fun event at the cultural centre in Handen last night. My photos of the old tree were shown as a slideshow as three musical acts performed. Top left photo shows the organizer behind the event, Gunnar Borg during the presentation of my tree project. Third photo top row shows Lasse Forslund in action, he did a version of King's Call by Phil Lynott. He played for half an hour. Second row to the right shows Lasse and the choir performing The Lumberjack Song! Before that a trio played a little Bossanova. That was Hansi Baumgartner, Michael Vinsa and Marianne Something. The last act was a band called Kulmen, I will upload a few photos of them tomorrow. There was soup for the hungry and beer or wine for the thirsty, I was thirsty.

Berrin Sahin

The folk singer Berrin Sahin and her band performed at Poseidon's square in Handen a couple of days ago. Mostly ballads from Turkey and Azerbaijan. They used different flutes, guitar, bağlama and key harp. A bit windy outside the cultural centre, but great with music outdoors. And just as I told the sound guy (he is a dedicated cyclist), that it was great with live music on the square, the presenter informed us that the lunch concerts will be back in September.. I sure hope I heard that wrong.

Free Cake Anyone?

The cultural centre in Handen celebrated ten years earlier this week. When I popped in for a visit, a group of people working at the centre were making their way towards the library where they presented a couple of surprised visitors with free cake and a a number of Christmas carols.

The Cultural Centre

This is the library at the cultural centre at Poseidon's Square in Handen. The Cultural Centre celebrates ten years in December. The celebrations takes place on 12.12.12. You can expect to see and hear some local artists including R & B-star Mary N’diaye and watch air acrobatics from Cirkus Cirkör.

The Art Curator and the Giant Green Spider

By chance I walked into the cultural centre in Handen just as the curator Åsa Mårtensson (seen here taking a photo), together with the artists Lisa Jeannin and Rolf Schuurmans, and a few strong hands carried the 100 kilo heavy green spider into the show room. When you read this the giant spider will hang from the roof. And from today until Wednesday the school-kids from the new Höglunda school will spend their time painting the walls for the new art project Connecting the Dots. The giant spider will then weave all the stories together. When the new school opens later this year the spider will welcome the kids as it will then hang in the school entrance.

VildirHeart

There was a lunchtime concert at the Cultural Centre in Handen yesterday. On stage were the band VildirHeart from Haninge. They describe their music as Alternative Pop. It's a family affair. On grand piano and vocals, Karin Dietrichson. She started the band three years ago, and when she asked her children to join her in the band, they said yes. On vocals then is Maria Dietrichson who you can see on the second photo, I liked her look, and figured I needed to take another portrait. On bass and vocals, Fredrik Dietrichson. Also in the band, but not playing today is drummer and percussionist Christoffer Lindgren. The band released their first album last year. It is called The Core.You can hear four of their songs at SoundCloud. A few songs also available at Spotify. On Friday they played a few cover songs from Hästpojken and Eldkvarn, and of course material from their debut album. If you want to see them check out this video. I got a copy of the album and after a first listen I have to say that I like it. It has a nostalgic feel to it. And what is a bit unusual, they sing in both Swedish and English. And if you want to buy a copy of The Core you can do so at CD Baby.

The Jordbro World Orchestra

On stage at the cultural center in Handen a couple of days ago were The Jordbro World Orchestra. Jordbro is a suburb to Stockholm. Ten thousand people live there. Most of them are immigrants. I was a student in Jordbro for three years a few eons ago. The orchestra, started by Michael Vinsa, a local musician who grew up here, won the 2011 Haninge municipality JIM award. Michael is the guy in the blue t-shirt. JIM stands for Equality, Integration and Diversity. The band have been playing a few local events and are slowly making a name for themselves. The members are both young and old, men and women, and they come from all over the world. JVO is also an Non Profit Organisation. More info in Swedish at their web site

Bittersweet & Melancholic

There was a lunchtime concert at the Cultural Centre in Handen on Friday. It became more melancholic than originally planned, as one of the musicians that was going to play here died in his sleep earlier this week. Seven musicians took to the stage and dedicated their performance to Yngve Hammervald. He was a very good guitarist, and played with ABBA many years ago. Someone told me that Yngve was invited to a world tour with ABBA ,but as he had just started a family he turned that invitation down. The people on stage here are Ove Blomqvist. Linus Söderlund. Mikael Pettersson. Emilia Ekeblad. Inga-lill "Plingis" Högman. Rasmus Söderlund and Mikael Vinsa.

Poladroid Art

Two Poladroid photos from two art exhibitions held at the Haninge Cultural Centre in Handen this spring. Back in March Fredrik Hofwander showed some of his art. Including this great pencil drawing of a doll house-sized Ultrahuset, a legendary punk music scene in Haninge back in the 1980s.

At the moment they are showing an installation by the Norwegian artist Tori Wrånes. It's all about The Belief of Human Electricity whatever that means. The installation includes the hammer hanging from the roof in front of these paintings/photographs and also a projection of photos showing the artist as she is working on the installation, and also this,(you will have to follow the link).

Memory Hole

I had a sneak preview at an upcoming art exhibition yesterday. This is Arvid Wretman and Jenny Palén. Their exhibition is called Memory Hole and it will open at the Haninge Cultural Centre on Friday. I was having coffee at the cafe and started talking to Åsa Mårtensson who is the Master of Arts at the centre. She told me about the exhibition and we walked into the showroom where Arvid and Jenny were busy working. I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the showroom so I asked them if we could go outside for a quick portrait. Arvid and Jenny are students at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. The Memory Hole exhibition will run from this Friday until the 22th of August. If you visit on Friday you will also see a performance by Arvid and hear a musical performance by David Giese aka Joxaren. Later in the summer there will be an open workshop for students between seventh grade and ninth grade.

The Hanging Gardens of Haninge

Following up on yesterdays post, here is a look at the very short-lived artwork that was The Hanging Gardens of Haninge. You had to be there to see it, as it is gone now. Luckily for you I was there with my camera. It took the performance group Zirkus Loko-Motiv a little over an hour to create the weird construction. Passers by were asked to participate by handing over any object they could live with out in return for a diploma. I had read about the happening in the paper so I had one such object with me. During the happening I walked around snapping left and right while chatting with the performers. And I was interviewed and photographed by a journalist from the Cultural Centre those photo will appear online next week. On the second photo you can see the cradle and acrobalance artist Katarina Rosen. She's not a member of the group, but got in contact with them when they bought her old camper which is now a mobile work shop, you can see it on the third photo. Katarina actually lives in a camper at the Circus village in Alby (remember the circus people from a while back), together with 14 artists from seven different countries. She's currently looking to set up the camper at another location and I suggested Trollsta in Sorunda where another theatre group is based. The third and next wonder will take place next month in Skärholmen. When all seven wonders have been created there will be a big happening in Stockholm where all seven wonders will be represented. To see all the photos from this event check out the slideshow.

At the Cultural Centre

There was a lot of different activities to see hear and try during Haninge Day on Saturday. Here are a few snaps from inside the Cultural Centre . On the top photo you can see local girl Johanna Martell, a young and talented opera singer preparing for her performance at the cafe. The pianist is Jacob Moscowic. More about Johanna on her web site. Or have a look at her blog.
Second photo shows a sculpture by Natalie Sutinen. It can be seen in the art room and Sutinen's exhibition opened on Saturday. The artwork has no name. It is made of wax, paper, books and feathers. Sutinen often works with wax dolls, and says that she wants to visualise death with her art. And I do think that really shows here.
On the third and last photo you can see the band Loud 'n' Proud playing some loud music in the theatre room. Surprisingly the audience were mostly pensioners, at least that was the case when I shot this. More photos from this fun day to come.