Nudity, arson, drunk mothers… Copenhagen’s most subversive artists take an all-or-nothing approach to partying

Bo Høyer Hansen

Singer and guitarist, Hand of Dust

“My reaction to any party scene is to try to avoid it. I can’t list a certain party as memorable; I always get uncomfortable and then either get drunk or leave… When I come home and need to shake off that creepy feeling, I’ll probably put on something by John Dowland or Tindersticks.”

Jens Kofoed-Pihl

Singer, DJ, author of Kitsch, Camp & John Waters

“My favourite party was probably at Now That’s Class – a bar in Cleveland, Ohio – during the Horrible Fest in 2011. It was also my birthday. Somebody torched a car in the parking lot during the night.”

Barberos

Electro/noise/visual band

“We’re currently on tour, which amounts to one giant, loud, love-filled party.“

Composer, artist, video director

“I used to involve myself a lot in the nightlife scene, but these days my mantra is “there´s absolutely nothing to celebrate”. I’m not interested in partying anymore, it bores the shit out of me. I still like to go out to talk and observe people from a social and anthropological point of view, but I leave as soon as people get wasted and start repeating themselves.”

Band – a cocktail of awkward dance music and punk jazz

“Our favourite place to party would be the underground venue called Mayhem, in the squatted hideout place called Bolsjefabrikken, ie The Candy Factory. The after-hours at Mayhem have often been a place to rock it off! That would also be our favourite venue to gig so far.”

Crank Sturgeon

Performance, installation and sound artist, comic conceptualist

“The most memorable party of my life involved a giant cardboard sculpture in the shape of an infant, maybe seven or eight meters high. We burned it for several hundred friends and friendly idiots, including a member of our state legislature who was determinedly naked.”

Rení Stiert

Sound artist

“I have many good party memories, but one that comes up right now is when I went to Greece for a holiday with my mum and my aunt. My mother got really drunk during dinner at a restaurant and started to flirt with the waiter, who was at least 25 years younger than her. We went with this young lad, on mopeds, up some dark, long and narrow hills and finally entered a tiny door that led into lit-up mayhem. My mother, who I thought would leave straightaway because of the music, went crazy dancing and making out not only with the waiter we came with.”

Thiébault Imm

Guitarist, Python vs Cobra

“I’ve actually been living in Berlin for 3 years now and beside the underground noise and experimental music scene, I have to confess I’ve become one of those techno addicts that goes to dance in clubs until Monday morning. Berghain in Berlin is one of the best places the city has to offer if you want to get lost in a 24 hour techno rave.”

Credits:

words by Malina Bickford

Photographs and video’s by Erika Svensson