Crown Princess Mette-Marit has begun her trip to Germany to promote Norwegian literature alongside her husband, Crown Prince Haakon.
She arrived in Düsseldorf on 11 October where she attended the opening of an exhibit. Crown Prince Haakon opened the “Edvard Munch gesehen von Karl Ove KnausgÃ¥rd” exhibit which will be on display until 1 March 2020 in the German museum, Kunstsammlung NRW’s K20 section.
The Crown Prince said during his remarks, “As you all know, Norway is this year’s Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. This exhibition is one of the most important events in the run-up to the book fair. I hope the exhibition will bring new knowledge about two Norwegian artists you might already know quite well. In addition, I hope it can be a reminder to all of us to rediscover what we think we already know by looking at it with new eyes, with an open mind.”
The exhibit features around 140 works of Edvard Munch that have rarely been on display in Germany.
The following day, the couple visited a bookstore in Berlin that specialises in Norwegian and Nordic literature. Pankebuch is owned by Petra Wenzel and Katrin Mirtschink, and Wenzel explained why she loves Nordic literature, “I grew up in East Berlin and dreamt of seeing the world. But the only way of travelling was through reading books.”
The Crown Prince Couple were given a tour of the bookstore and a presentation of some of the works it contains. They also spoke to the owners regarding their efforts to spread Norwegian and Nordic literature.
At the conclusion of the visit, Crown Princess Mette-Marit remarked, “People working in bookstores have an extremely important job of connecting authors and readers. I have discovered many authors through great recommendations from people working in bookstores.”
