Guest Blog: Festival Director Camilla Gürtler On The New Nordics Festival

New Nordics Festival is a new festival showcasing new Nordic plays in the UK, bringing the work of some of the most exciting Nordic playwrights from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands to the UK for the first time. Working with six UK-based directors, the festival celebrates inter-cultural collaborations.

New Nordics Festival was born out of a wish to bridge the gap between theatre cultures in different countries. In this festival's case, between the UK and the Nordic region - but on a larger scale, to change the theatre culture in this country and how we view international work and artists.

It comes at a critical point where the UK has left the EU to explore a new direction, becoming more insular. At moments like this, international collaborations seem even more pivotal; they're a chance to share our hopes and fears, our shared humanity, and also a chance to learn from each other.

Art and culture have always been at the forefront of empathy, innovation and new perspectives, and so with this festival, we hope artists will look to strengthen these bonds in the time to come.

Projects like ours are here to encourage artists (particularly emerging ones) to cross borders and meet each other in creative exploration - a chance to broaden horizons in both directions and stay openminded, innovative and empathetic.

Throughout this project, I've been reflecting on why collaborating with different countries and their artists is important and how it can inspire us going forward in our own work. In the case of this festival, what makes the Nordic countries the 'happiest in the world' is something we've kept coming back to.

Obviously, nothing is ever as the media tells you, but there is something about Nordic culture which inspires awe in many, which is partly the reason for books about 'Nordic Living' flying off the shelves. The Nordic region is rich with artistic output, and over the past couple of years, the work of Nordic artists has captured British and international audiences with Nordic film and TV shows such as The Killing and The Bridge, as well as Nordic design and food becoming more popular - especially the much-embraced concept of 'Hygge'.

For the New Nordics Festival, we've been investigating what we might learn from these 'super-happy' countries. For example, new ways of thinking and openness are key values that seem to reoccur, as well as trust, sustainability, innovation and equality. We've workshopped these values with our entire festival team and explored how we, as cultures, are similar and different, what we can learn from each other, and what drives us to create theatre in the first place.

As we feel there is a clear benefit from the practical, face-to-face exploration of a culture, compared to "on paper" research, we sent our directors to the countries where the playwrights they've been working with are from, to get an insight into how the creative industry works there.

It makes the collaboration much more open - you are meeting other artists who are trying to achieve the same as you, but sometimes from a completely different starting point or belief system.

Some of the things our directors learnt during these trips include how stronger artist support schemes in the Nordic countries create a better work-life balance and better art in the long term.

Additionally, their trips offered insights into where habits and creative expression comes from - whether it's from lack of trust in government in the UK, a need for more diversity in the Nordic region, or how a country's geographical location affect the "mood" of the art they create.

All these findings have made us think about our own cultures as a mixed festival team, and how and why we make art as theatre-makers. Sometimes, we can only reflect by looking at ourselves through the eyes of a different culture.

Beyond the country- or region-specific exchange, this festival investigates a much richer and complicated issue: how and why we can benefit from intercultural exchange, particularly in the arts.

Someone recently told me that theatre is the least collaborative (internationally) art form - which saddened me, but definitely wasn't a shock. Fashion, music and fine arts have travelled across borders far more frequently, perhaps because they're not language-dependent in the same way. We have always travelled and sought out other cultures and ways of living - in food, innovation and business - so why does this happen less in theatre?

Every country has their own unique approach to creativity, social change and how this is reflected in the theatre they create. Collaborating with other cultures is a means of exploring how their creative thinking and cultural structures have inspired their place in the world, and we can then either be inspired by or challenge these values - and, more widely, look at how we as people work across borders, cultures and generations.

When the artistic community comes together as one, it's not about achieving world domination, or deciding which culture is the best. It's not about asserting our individual cultures either. It's about inviting connections, about inspiring and being inspired. It's about conversation and cooperation, exchange of thoughts and ideas. This is the only way we as an international community stay open, find a shared humanity and challenge the structures which oppose this.

I believe that art and culture are without borders. In a time of change, art can act as a focal point that opens up and creates connections.

New Nordics Festival at The Yard Theatre 18-21 March