Sell Your TV and Come To The Cinema

Our last week in Gothenburg overflowed with creative capers and heart to heart happenings.

End of the year art school shows… our fave: the fresh, sassy work at Dômen Konstskola

Scanning the analog horizon

Twilight Filmcycle screenings every night from one side of town to the other featuring films and photographs made in community during the past 3 months in Sweden

Studio visits with artists whose life and work represent the soul of Konstepidemin: Berit Jonsvik, Bibbi Forsman, Carina Fihn, Johanna St Michaels, Maria Magnusson, Nils Ramhøj, Pecka Söderberg and Pia König

The sweet springtime delight of homemade lilac syrup

Midnight blue cyanotypes thrown out to the night sky

A mad dash through all the galleries and museums left on our list

One last peruse and fika at our beloved treasure trove Saron Secondhand…

A fabulously cacophonous cultural celebration: Hooray for Hammarkullekarnevalen!

Majornas Megaloppis, the giant neighborhood flea market, where we shouted out “Send us a Bolex!” and one instantly appeared!

A friend-filled Make It + Take It that ran all day and into the evening, ending with a humble offering to the twilight forest

A farewell Swedish studio supper with Maria and Linus

And the last stitch of the lollipop rag rug, begun in Week 1.

Full circle.

Lucky 13!

Thirteen weeks of art, adventure, exploration and camaraderie.

Thirteen weeks of moving through new landscapes, activating new rooms, dancing to new tunes, sparking bright collaborations, and dipping into new blue oceans of possibility.

To simply be. And be with others, kindred spirits all.

Tusen tack to IASPIS, to Konstepidemin, to Gothenburg, to everyone who welcomed us and created with us, and most especially to Maria. We love you dearly.

In the short time we’ve been away, Gothenburg has transformed into a lush, green oasis… every leaf unfurled, every blossom bloomed, the sun smiling down on everyone. “Swedish Summer” is right around the corner; it’s time to play and explore!

On Monday, we stroll the Botanical Garden and inhaled the scent of the season.

On Tuesday, we play with light and shadow. The simplest things are still the most magical.

On Wednesday, we work with students from Dômen Konstkola, Konstepidemin’s robust patch of stinging nettles, and a bit of purple cabbage leftover from Awakenings to create a collaborative Super 8 film bursting with alchemical energy.

On Thursday, (a holiday of obscure religious origin), we take a fantastic and fantastically inspiring journey to former woolen mill town and current quirky kooky steampunk paradise Uddebo (be sure to wear some feathers in your hat!) where we connect with instant soulmate sisters Linnéa and Linnéa whose radical textile work with Dreamfactory and other projects is an energized invitation to explore possible ways to survive and thrive in a post-industrial society.

On Friday, we use some ancient caffenol to process some Illy coffee can pinhole images… Oracularly mysterious!

On Saturday, it’s an epic cyanotype/photograms/photobooth of change/Super 8 workshop overflowing with terrific new friends of all ages (and the surprise appearance of SWS: Gothenburg 2016 participant Emely Hansson Cuadros!) in the cool courtyard our favourite community centre: Kulturhuset Bergsjön followed by a sumptuous, high-spirited sing-a-long Swedish Summer Supper with Magnus, Sofia, and the two newest (and most adorable) members of the You Are My Sunshine fan club.

And finally the sweetest Family Sunday in beautiful Bokenäs with Mama Kerstin, Sister Kristina, Dearest Maria and Grillmeister Linus… the warmest of welcomes, delicious traditional meals made with love and local ingredients (moose sausages!!!), walks through the countryside and down memory lane, two cool cats (one sociable, one shy), tours of the garden and the cutest little cabin, the first swim of the season, and lots of laughter. So grateful for this ever-expanding circle of love…

Part 2 of our Norrland adventure begins as we say so long to our beloved Moskosel and head up into the Arctic Circle. Jokkmokk is much more than a “simple and sturdy” set of table and chairs from Ikea, it’s a hub of Sami culture and commerce, where a winter market has been a vibrant meeting place for more than 400 years! At the Ájtte Museum, we are blown away by the amazing array of images, objects and stories that tell the story of Sápmi and Sámi culture; at the Sámi Duodji Sameslöjdstiftelsen, it’s clear that the elders and young artists alike are continuing craft traditions in ways that resonate deeply in the 21st century. If the soul of Jokkmokk pulses with the power, grace and resilience of the Sámi people, Kiruna is an unsettling glimpse at the realities of contemporary resource extraction. LKAB has mined so much iron in the area the entire city is sinking into the pit hollowed out below! But the mine also casts a long shadow above ground in this company town–seems like pretty much everyone here works for the mine, or used to work for the mine, or has a business that relates to the mine, or eats cake at the LKAB museum in the home of the founder of the mine–so all of Kiruna is slowly being moved 2 km away…

“Then there are the indigenous Sami people of Scandinavia, whose traditional lifestyle revolves around herding and hunting reindeer. The Sami have long protested against the building of new mines in their ancestral homeland. LKAB officials claim the relocation of Kiruna won’t affect the Sami because the new site was already a town dump, but the Sami themselves have a somewhat different take. “They just don’t need to give a fuck, so they don’t give a fuck,” a member of the Sami parliament told The Guardian.”

It’s a relief to flee to the fjords. Bibbi told us the Lofoten Archipelago is one of her favourite places on earth and we can see why… the magnificence of nature is almost overpowering in its stark and striking beauty. Combine this with the tantalizing (for JoJo) smell