Festival of Cool wraps up Harbourfront Centre’s year-long cultural initiative, Nordic Bridges, with spectacle and celebration. It features 10 days of exciting programming that focuses on theatre, visual art, music and community.

This year includes the one-night-only North American premiere of Jingyi Wang’s ground-breaking and interactive Post Capitalistic Auction, a reimagined spin on the traditional auction as well as the Ontario premiere of Moby Dick, from award-winning French-Norwegian puppetry company Plexus Polaire, co-presented with Why Not Theatre. Music lovers won’t want to miss the double bill of award-winning Nordic bands Tuuletar and VÍÍK.

The fifth annual Festival of Cool returns to Harbourfront Centre from December 8–18, 2022. This year’s events  include the one-night-only North American premiere of Jingyi Wang’s groundbreaking and interactive Post Capitalistic Auction, featuring the work of Ed Pien, Maria Qamar, KC Adams, Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth, and more. This is a live art auction reimagined: one that puts decision making power back into the artists’ hands, and allows bidders to use money, understanding, opportunity, and/or exchange as acceptable currencies.

Also on stage will be the Ontario premiere of Moby Dick, from award-winning French-Norwegian puppetry company Plexus Polaire, co-presented with Why Not Theatre. With ten performers, 50 puppets, video projections that blur the lines between truth and illusion, a submerged orchestra and a whale-sized whale, this adaptation of Moby Dick is a winter theatre season must-see.

Music lovers won’t want to miss the double bill of award-winning Nordic bands Tuuletar and VÍÍK. Fierce energy, beatbox rhythms and other-worldly harmonies: Tuuletar (Goddess of The Wind in Finnish mythology) takes Finnish music abroad with a novel approach. Scandinavian sextet VÍÍK, hailing from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, exists in a field between the hypnotic Scandinavian song tradition, progressive jazz and alternative rock. They were recently nominated as “Artist of the Year” and “Live Act of the Year” at the 2022 Danish Music Awards.

Additional Festival highlights include:
• Art Spin’s outdoor, art-filled sauna, Mobile Sweat and the debut of Sauna Obscura by Heidi Lunabba.
• The Future of 2030 – A free Nordic Talk
• An exhibit of worldwide reporting projects from the Nordic–Canadian Fellowship in Environmental Journalism.
• Plus, additional visual art to explore on site including Fuglakvæðið (The Bird Ballad) by Faroese artist Edward Fuglø, Kjøt (Meat) by Faroese artist Heiðrik á Heygum, Eyes as Big as Plates from Norwegian-Finnish artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen and the Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity exhibit at The Power Plant.

FESTIVAL OF COOL 2022
December 8 to 18, 2022 – Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queens Quay W

For more information about national Nordic Bridges programming, visit NordicBridges.ca or follow
@NordicBridges and #NordicBridges on all platforms.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.