Nan Na Hvass
	We sat down with our laptops, Skype, and Nan Na Hvass on the other end of the line to talk about how the internet has collapsed the globe and how collaboration makes the world go ‘round. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Could you tell me a little about your background? NAN NA HVASS: Well, I grew up in Southern Africa, but I moved to Denmark when I was 10. I study at Danish Design School, and I study there with Kasper, who I made the video with. We actually started it as our Bachelor project at school, but then we finished it after we were done. I’m not quite graduated; we’re both kind of taking a little break from school at the moment. LUMEN ECLIPSE: And you’re in New York now? NAN NA HVASS: Yeah, I’m doing an internship at PandaPanther [ed: see pandapanther.com]. They do a lot of motion graphics and advertisements and movies. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Are you very influenced by Danish and Scandinavian culture and design? How does the culture of your early childhood figure into this? NAN NA HVASS:I think with the internet and the easy possibilities to see lots of different kinds of artwork, I would say I wasn’t really inspired by things going on the area that I grew up or live in now. I think it’s just so easy to get in touch with all kinds of people from all kinds of places that it isn’t really a geographical thing. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Did you grow up very connected to other cultures and other design and art worlds? NAN NA HVASS: Me and Sofie, that’s Hvass&Hannibal, we do work both in Denmark and in other countries because we can basically work from anywhere. We have some clients overseas, and it doesn’t really make a difference where in the world you are. You can always send your stuff over the internet. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Do you work together long-distance? NAN NA HVASS: Yeah, we do actually. Sometimes, if we’re not in the same town, if we have a commission one of us will just start drawing some shapes or lines, and then would send it to the other one, and then the other would continue and would send it back, so we send it back and forth, and keep adding on until we have something that we both like. It’s nicest to do it if we’re in the same place, but we can easily do it if we’re online. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Do you think this is true more broadly in design and art worlds? That personal, cultural, geographical identities are less important now? NAN NA HVASS: Yeah, I guess it must be like that at the moment. Probably these things would change back and forth a little bit. Sometimes we work with physical objects and 3D stuff, and we’ll work with wood or something, and in those cases I guess it’s much more important that you actually are in the place where you work. And if you do an exhibition, and do stuff locally, I guess it just becomes more interactive with local people and places and friends. LUMEN ECLIPSE: How did you come to work with Efterklang? NAN NA HVASS: Actually, Rasmus from Efterklang is my boyfriend, so that’s the very simple and boring explanation. I did their album covers; I did three album covers for them. So that’s basically why, and how. I always fear that question, because it isn’t a very glamorous answer. LUMEN ECLIPSE: What was the process of making this video like? How was the band involved? NAN NA HVASS: They more or less just let us do what we wanted to do; it was very much our project, for which we used their music. It wasn’t a constant back and forth about what we wanted and then how we would obtain their approval. It was more about us living out something we wanted to try, and then using their music; the idea was it would be a joint venture and everybody would benefit from it. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Did you feel very inspired by the music? Or was the design a bit separate from the music itself? NAN NA HVASS: We felt very, very inspired by the music. Both Kasper and I really admire their music a lot, and the more I listen to it the better it gets and the more little details I hear. So we spent a lot of time listening to the music and breaking it up and understanding which instruments there are where, and we made all sorts of diagrams showing the point of no return and the narrative and dramatic peaks: where it lifts and where it falls and where the tension is high and where it’s low, and we were very focused on all that in order to make a story that fit the path of the music. We did have some talks with Efterklang along the way, but that was more for inspiration, and also to understand what was behind the music; it wasn’t to so much to get their approval, because I think they just wanted to let us do what we felt. LUMEN ECLIPSE: I’m curious about the main character you chose; what is he? Is he a real animal, or is he an invention? NAN NA HVASS: He’s an invention. He’s very inspired by Oskar Schlemmer’s—you know, the Bauhaus theater man from the 1930s in Germany, he made really wonderful costumes that made humans look really abstract. I think we were checking those out a lot, and then we drew those figures: kind of abstract variations of the human body. Many people think it’s a bird, but we never really thought about that. He had friends—they’re only in the video really briefly, but if you want, you can see them there. LUMEN ECLIPSE: You work with such different media: posters and flyers, album sleeves, wall murals, t-shirts, music videos, etc. Where did you start, and will you continue to experiment with form? NAN NA HVASS: I started with photography, actually. I studied photography and I felt that that was what I wanted to do, and I was very interested in art photography. Then I started at the Design School, and I found out that I really enjoy illustrating, and then I kept trying new things and found that I really liked them. I like to switch between different media and really just try out what’s fun. This was the first music video that I’ve been involved in, so it’s also kind of new territory – kind of, “I want to try this, too!” LUMEN ECLIPSE: I don’t mean for you to put yourself in a box, but do you see yourself more aligned with design worlds or art worlds? Do those divisions exist for you? NAN NA HVASS: They definitely do because people are always asking what I work with and every time they ask I’m really in doubt about what to say; I don’t feel quite right about saying I’m a designer because it’s often very tied to that commercial aspect. But I also feel that there’s some sort of awe and aura around the word ‘artist,’ and I feel that you have to use it very carefully. I feel that I’m somewhere in between, and I’m not sure what to call myself. LUMEN ECLIPSE: Do you feel more excited and inspired by work being done in the design world or in the art world? NAN NA HVASS: I think I’m mostly inspired by illustrative artists. I can also be very inspired by more commercial design, but usually only if it’s a really strong concept that’s really funny or interesting, or if it makes use of some impressive artwork. But I’m not really that interested in the commercial aspects of design. LUMEN ECLISPE: A lot of your designs depict these lush magical landscapes, and organic forms, and unknown creatures; where do these worlds come from? NAN NA HVASS: I don’t know!! [laughs] Many of the images are made sort of layer by layer, and I usually don’t know where it’s going to go, but then suddenly, as the image gets built up, I can get surprised myself by what it is. I don’t really see the image in my mind before I do it, it evolves some other way. LUMEN ECLIPSE: You’re part of the design duo Hvass&Hannibal, and for ‘Mirador’ you obviously worked with quite a number of people; what is the benefit for you of collaboration? NAN NA HVASS: There are so many benefits, I don’t know where to start. First of all it’s just really good to have a close friend that you can share your work with, to talk about each assignment and go through what to do and how to do it, the pros and cons of different directions. It just feels much more inspiring and fun, I think, because you’re not alone against the world, and you can sort of build bigger things, and you have more hands. It’s really a good thing. LUMEN ECLIPSE: You’ve lived and worked all over the world; is it better to make work in Denmark than it is in New York than it is in Paris? NAN NA HVASS: Again, with the internet and everything, it’s easy to be pretty much anywhere in the world, in Congo, wherever! But in terms of an inspiring environment, I think that New York is really, really fantastic, and I think it’s a place that I would really like to go back and live. I really like Denmark, but I don’t think that’s it’s the most inspiring place to be, maybe, concerning art and illustration.