No Not the One You Heard About

I saw Simone Kærn's exhibition Open Sky in Malmö, Sweden, in July when actually I had crossed Öresund courtesy of my brother to attend a music festival, Accelerator - the Big One. Kærn took me by surprise as I arrived at the exhibition hall not only unintendedly, but holding her project in low esteem. I'd just read about it in a newspaper, and Kærn's whole idea of flying to Kabul to make (or not to make) a dream of flying come true on behalf of a young Afghan girl in a story by Carsten Jensen seemed sort of old and sentimental hat.

In stead, the music festival was a disappointment (to me) and for all the opposite reasons. I had expected to be listening to fresh, cutting edge versions of all the bands I used to like... and I do see the attitude problem now, but I felt up to it all.

All ears, yet earplugs ready at hand.

And Regina Spektor was fantastic to begin with, singing and being a band on her own, playing the piano and drumming away with her drum sticks on a wooden chair, but her show and her lyrics became more and more curious and yes, well, self-indulgent by the song, and I felt as if I were visiting the weblog of a perfect stranger and grew tired of it. Silver Jews seemed hostile, and I felt only momentarily heartened when they reached the legendary line (of a song-in-character) that up until then I'd only heard my brother recite:

There is a house in New Orleans, no not the one you heard about, I'm talking about another house...

Anyway, we decided to leave the site for a few hours to go for a walk around Malmö. And happened to pass by Kunsthallen where Simone Aaberg Kærn's actual (and actually very little) airplane and her portraits of female pilots in World War II, paintings, videos and more, were on display.

When the exhibition hall was closing for the day, a guy had to pull my sleeve to make me put down the ear phones at a video of Kærn's visit to the States in the homes of some of the pilots who are still alive today. Basically I was caught up in a film of how Simone Kærn was drinking tea with an elderly lady and then getting up to go fly a plane with her. What old interesting and very absorbing hat. And nevermind the music festival and The Raconteurs who closed it for the day.