IMMART first worked with guitarist Mikkel Andersen during Artival, back in 2016, in one of our most treasured events: multilingual poetry and guitar music in the night church at the Church of Our Lady (Natkirke, Vor Frue Kirke) in Copenhagen. Since then we have enjoyed several spontaneous concerts by Mikkel at our events, and always wonderful conversations about life, music and community at our dinners and over a cup of tea over the years. Mikkel has also collaborated with several IMMART Network members on different projects and events.
Apart from his professional career as a guitarist, Mikkel is also a gifted guitar teacher. He has been teaching children and adults at his school, Casa De La Guitarra – Københavns Guitarskole since 2010, starting out teaching people in his basement at his home in Hvidovre. In recent years the school has been located at Kvarterhuset Amagerbro (Holmbladsgade Culture Centre) in Amager, Copenhagen. Then, at the end of 2020, Mikkel made the move to a beautiful independent space, still on Amager, but now on Østrigsgade, a stone’s throw from Lergravsparken Metro Station.
It’s a funny place – it is a mixture between a guitar school, an art gallery, an event place, a community center where people can have their christenings and private parties and all these types of things (…) I hope that after the covid lockdown we will get a lot of chances to hold various events. And it would of course be wonderful if we could gather the IMMART people for a dinner.
In the very first chat Mikkel and I had after he acquired the space, he expressed his desire for it to be a venue for future IMMART Dinners, for exhibitions, for poetry readings, for meetings … for whatever was needed. The conversation was essentially about Mikkel’s desire for this space to represent not only a guitar school, but also a place where different kinds of communities and local people can come together.
Everything in this place, by-the-way, will happen when it happens. People are invited to come here – I won’t try to persuade anyone to come in. I would be happy and I am very open to everything. People will have their own ideas, and of course I have my own ideas too, but I am trying to run this place without any persuasion at all. I am not going to try to persuade people to do something that is not their own idea.
Being an arts organisation that has grown entirely organically, we appreciate and value Mikkel’s community-centered, holistic approach to the further evolution of his guitar school and space, immensely. The need for such attitudes and locations has always been present, and the pandemic has only amplified this. There is no doubt that Casa De La Guitarra is a welcome addition to Amager’s arts and culture scene.
By-the-way, to say that the new location is aesthetically inviting is an understatement. Located on a residential street with a few small businesses and a local café closeby, the classically Nordic clean white split-level interior is adorned with a wonderful art exhibition, which is entirely visible to the general public because of the great big windows that constitute the facade facing the street. Mikkel tells me that the place is particularly charming in the evenings when it is dark – he often works late, sometimes until 10pm keeping the light on and giving the locals and visitors to the area a wonderful treat as they pass by or just look out of their window from across the street.
I am sure that people enjoy the place a lot. Not just because they come in and have guitar lessons, but also for the fact that we are a very aesthetic place with interesting art (…) so it is not just a guitar school for the students. It is a beautiful place for people who live in the area.
As the tide begins to turn in our COVID19-altered reality, we can slowly start looking forward to meaningful and authentic social interaction again. An IMMART Dinner at Casa De La Guitarra will for sure take place in early autumn, and there may well be another event before that during the spring/summer months. But do not wait for us! Pop by and visit Mikkel and Casa De La Guitarra and get chatting about your own ideas with Mikkel (contact details below).
A warm heartfelt thank you and congratulations to Mikkel for creating this wonderful new community space.
Have a great weekend and stay safe!
All the best
Nicol
Mikkel Andersen
Casa De La Guitarra
Østrigsgade 47
DK – 2300 Copenahgen S
Location on Google Maps
+45 2812 6472
kontakt@koebenhavnsguitarskole.dk
https://koebenhavnsguitarskole.dk
