Works by participants in the creative summer workshop at Gillberga, Södertälje (photo: HHW.)
Each morning, our story evolves a bit further. After days and nights at sea, the refugees finally reach a safe shore. Among the few precious things they’ve brought with them is a pouch filled with seeds of all kinds: chia seeds, white beans, sunflower seeds… Conch seeds and starseeds too. A grumpy gardener shows up. A minute butterfly alights upon a rainbow-coloured dreamcatcher. Instantly, the seeds are sprouting… Blue-striped flowers and roses spring into bloom. Maybe we can settle here?
I am very privileged to spend my days together with friends like you in the Land of Mir. Thank you for this week – Sofia, Christian, Ragad, Tommy, Pia, Henry, Ulf and others! May your secret gardens always bloom and bring you sweet fruit.
First day of the summer workshop. Around twenty people meet up in the morning. Some are newcomers, most of us have met before. Some of us (but far from all) are experienced in painting, modelling and drawing. As a group, we represent a broad range of physical/cognitive variations, with one constant: our common need for – and delight in – working with creative expressions. I open the workshop with the beginning of a story; a tale of a gruesome tempest and a small group of people fleeing in a boat… What would they bring with them to start a new life? And what will happen next?
Helena Hildur W. 