conversations in ten questions 54: Christian Lollike

© Emilia Therese

Danish playwright and theater director Christian Lollike (1973) was among the participants of Nordic Focus, which was held for the first time this year as part of the New Text Festival. Within the scope of the event supported by the Danish Embassy, Danish Cultural Institute, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danish Ministry of Culture, Danish Consulate, Consulate General of Sweden, the Swedish Research Institute and the Swedish Arts Council, Lollike's play Cosmic Fear or Brad Pitt's Day of Paranoia was performed as a staged reading.

Lollike is working with stage and installation art in theaters, public areas and virtual platforms. He has produced a comprehensive amount of theatre texts and his texts are being played in and outside Europe. During the last couple of years, Lollike’s work has been dealing more and more with inter-aesthetics and he has made a ballet, an opera installation and a political party. His artistic drive derives from wanting to understand events, social trends and changes in politics and society. He is known as one of the most progressive playwrights and artists in Denmark and has received awards for stage art in Denmark. Lollike is artistic Director of Sort/Hvid.

What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion?

That you are able to tell something about our world that we did not know that we didn’t know. Often its how your tell it. 

Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?

I meet many people who have got to know my projects in school. They tell me how it´s has affected them. That is to me a transformation. I also think that some of my performances has created a debate that transformed people's mind about things. That is enough for me. 

When you are working on a text, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?

I work with my dreams and hopes for the future – and try to understand why they are as they are. On which ideas are they constructed. 

When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?

It can be before I start writing or long after I am finished and some plays might never find the right title. And that I hate. 

Are there any writer, artist or person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such a figure, who?

There are many of whom I am influenced. I think David Bowie was the first. He somehow taught me that you do not have one inner voice as a writer. That you can work under masks – and that way change style. Søren Kiekegaard did that same actually. Dostojevskij and Nietzsche is the two writers that have had the biggest influence on my approach to life and art. 

When you consider the current state of the world in every sense, what is the most important and urgent issue for you as an artist?

Climate change is still urgent. I think It will change our whole idea of freedom completely. And it will – and is! – changing the world dramatically. 

What are your main concerns when a play of yours is translated into another language?

That the humor and the poetry die. 

Do you believe your works resonate more with your local culture/community or more universally?

Well I deal with a lot of topics that is described in Western media but hopefully my work resonates in other cultures as well. I would be disappointed if they didn’t. 

Your play Cosmic Fear or the Day Brad Pitt Got Paranoia was shared with the audience in New Text Festival in Istanbul in the staged reading. How did the idea for this play come about, how did the writing process develop?

That is not possible to answer shortly. I use a year to write a play. And it was commissioned by Marxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. 

In addition to writing theatre texts, you have had various pursuits ranging from making a ballet, an opera installation, to founding a political party. What are the pros and cons of not restricting yourself only to the field of performing arts or to your artistic production?

Pros: different medias can express different things. If you find the strenght in each media you are allowed a lot of artictic freedom. But you always need to find the right partners. Cons: I admire some artists who are able to become better and better in one field. Like some writers. You risk only to be halfgood at a lot of things.

[The Turkish version of this conversation was published in unlimited.]