JIBBOLII, Fylkingen’s 70th anniversary festival, from 25th – 30th November 2003, was a massive success! Day after day, night after night, to my amazement, the numerous events, one after the other, were executed according to schedule without even a single flaw, which is something extraordinary in an idealistic association of this rather chaotic character, made up of artists of all walks of life. Everyone made their utmost to make this happen, to see this through, and you can be nothing but lyrical about this exciting week.
I stayed on at Fylkingen 24 hours a day, through the hectic evenings and nights of concerts, performances, choreographies, films and combinations of all these and much more, and I stayed on through the silent hours of the morns and the afternoon rehearsals. There is no place like Fylkingen that I know of, where all aspects of modern art can mix and produce the hitherto unknown and unseen, unheard expressions out of the deepest reaches of human creativity. Fylkingen is freedom and discipline, wild thoughts and coordinated efforts, from the set-ups of equipment through the enlightened expressions of ingenious art to the early morning clean-ups.
The spirit of Man shines bright and clear at Fylkingen. I had a conversation one night with veteran and enfant-terrible Sten Hanson, who was the head of Fylkingen for many years, and who was one of the founders of the text-sound composition tradition. He stated that not since the 1960s had there been such a surge for these alternative cultures and life styles. Fylkingen was filling up completely night after night at the Jibbolii festival, and people even had to be turned off at the door. This is amazing, since Fylkingen is thought to be at the farthest reaches of the exclusive, and it is with great joy one sees that it is the young that are gathering. Old farts like myself are still around at Fylkingen, but the heavy load is pulled by the young or semi-young these days. That is great! Art is alive and well at Fylkingen.
I was the main photographer at Fylkingen’s Jibbolii festival week, so I’d like to present 186 of the pictures I took to allow for a – albeit fragmented - impression of what went on, in a few linked pages, day by day.
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