If we are genuinely to move forward and lift ourselves together across the Nordic region, we must dare to challenge one another, become indignant, provoke one another – and get involved in each other’s affairs. What happens in Norway does not only concern the people who live in Norway. The same applies to us in Denmark and Sweden. Stig Kirk Ørskov, Nord55, moderated a discussion with Kristin Danielsen (N), Nordic Culture Fund, Christian Jensen, Politiken (DK), and Victor Malm, Expressen (S).

The media have a responsibility for the Nordic public sphere. On stage, they discussed, among other things, how they can allow disagreements, debates and discussions to flow back and forth across the Nordic borders – so that we can become even more connected and, more broadly, create a public debate where there is room for visionary thinking and where there is plenty of room for different perspectives.

Everyone has a responsibility to get involved. But above all, the media, editors, publishers, programme-makers, curators and everyone else who has the opportunity to create space for a new Nordic public sphere. At NORD55°, we believe this is part of the answer to how we can find new paths and new perspectives in an increasingly authoritarian age.

Thank you for an important debate at Kulturmødet Mors.

Our partners, Foreningen Norden, invited Lise Bach Hansen, Nord55, to join their debate, which focused precisely on what binds the Nordic countries together. Here, defence and security were at the centre of the discussion, as was the question of hard and soft power exercised by a united Nordic region. The discussion included Clement Kjersgaard, Lars Barfoed, Foreningen Norden, Flemming Møller Mortensen, MP, Social Democrats, and Ana Enemark, Danish Cultural Institute.

In the photographs:

Victor Malm (Sweden), Expressen
Christian Jensen (Denmark), Politiken
Kristin Danielsen (Norway), Nordic Culture Fund
Stig Kirk Ørskov, Nord55
Clament Kjersgaard (DR)
Flemming Møller Mortensen, Member of Parliament, Social Democrats
Lars Barfoed, Foreningen Norden
Anna Enemark, Danish Cultural Institute
Lise Bach Hansen, Nord55