Five writers with a refugee background, five composers, three musicians and an interactive media designer has created the work ASYLUM! Concert, which gives a different take on life as a refugee in Denmark.

ASYLUM! Concert performed for the first time Wednesday, June 10 at ARoS in Aarhus and again on June 11 at LiteraturHaus in Copenhagen. This first event is the culmination of a collaboration between the Danish Refugee Council and the 13 artists who have written, composed, visualized and played his way to an important contribution to the debate on the conditions of refugees in Denmark.

About to be a refugee

The cornerstone of ASYLUM! Concert is a series of poems written by five talented writers who was born in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Bosnia. The poems are based on their personal experiences with being a refugee in Denmark and communicate in different ways the state it is to have two homelands - and yet have nothing. One of the authors - the Bosnians failed Alen Meskovic, also published the book First time back at Gyldendal - helps ASYLUM! Concert with two poems that depict the special experience to revisit the place they fled. About his poetry, which, together with the composer Juliana Hodkinson's music included in the ASYLUM! Concert, says Meskovic: "They are about migrant's country allowed it to be torn between two, not cultures, but far different experience: the war in their home country at the time and everyday life in Denmark now. I have no political or social agendas and generally get nauseous from the Danish immigration debate which for too long has been about cultures and religions and has reduced ordinary people Danes and Muslims. I hope that a project like this can help us to look at the problem from a more general application angle. "

Interpreted in music and images

Five talented composers have used the authors' poems to write new music for classical guitar, percussion and baritone. For example, contains ASYLUM! Concert work the waiting of the Bosnian-born composer and author Edina Hadziselimovic. Hadziselimovic, in addition to its commitment to ASYLUM! Concert also is current with the opera Waiting in nowhere at the Royal Theatre, portraying the lyrics and music on moving some more of the people she has met during his time in Sandholm. The works will during the concert will be interpreted in an interactive sequence of images created by digital artist and designer Signe Klejs. Visualizations that interact with the audience and musicians, projected on large helium balloons and creates a dynamic story in interaction with the music.

Life as a refugee on the agenda

ASYLUM! Concert using so literature, contemporary music and interactive media design of high artistic quality to set the conditions of refugees on the agenda. Initiator and project manager for ASYLUM! Concert Thea Vesti Pedersen explains the intent of the work: "The desire has been to give the floor to the refugees themselves. Common to the contributing writers is that they not only have a past in war-torn countries, but they also manage to convey their stories in Danish in vibrant and definitely worth reading poems. Sat in an innovative artistic format ASYLUM! Concert, which support the poems' themes, we create a clean dissemination of the feelings associated with being a refugee in Denmark. "The project manager's opinion is supplemented by the Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council, Andreas Kamm" Danish refugee Council works to create a better future for refugees worldwide. In this context, our cultural work an important element that can help to create a broader understanding of refugees' conditions. It must be said that the Asylum Concert do - in an artistic interesting way and with something to say. "ASYLUM! Concert has premiered at ARoS Wednesday, June 10 and also entered on LiteraturHaus Thursday, June 11. In the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010 initiated a tour where the plant will be constructed on companies, in community centers, churches and concert halls across the country.

Facts about ASYLUM! Concert

Time and place: ARoS Aarhus, Wednesday 10 June at. 19:30 LiteraturHaus, Copenhagen, Thursday 11 June at. 19:30. The concert lasts about one hour. There will be an opportunity to meet the performers for both concerts. Starring: Author: Alen Meskovic Author: Edina Hadziselimovic Author: Asef Soltanzadeh Author: Shadi Angelina Bazeghi Author: Duna Gahli Composer: Juliana Hodkinson Composer: Edina Hadziselimovic Composer: Kasper Jarnum Composer: Eblis Alvarez Composer: Morten Ladehoff Virtual design: Signe Klejs Percussion: Mikkel Ib Rasmussen Song: Niels Jorgen Tranberg Classical guitar: Thea Vesti Pedersen partners and sponsors: the concert was created by the Association Asylum in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council and ARoS with support from the Danish Arts Foundation, Danish Actors 'Association, Danish Society of Composers, KODA, the municipality of Aarhus, Danish playwrights Association, Danish Musicians' Union, Wilhelm Hansen Foundation,Culture Aarhus, Narayana Press and the Danish National Bank Jubilee Fund.