Over the years I found out: all of my projects consist of several phases. This is the one thing they have in common, the other one is the red thread connecting them.

When it is time to start something new, I open my project-pantry. I take out an idea which is just ready to work through.

The fun starts with packing my pack. Cautiously I imbed the idea and some other stuff which helps to grow it. In the second phase it is time to get out to the road – literally this time. Research makes one’s mind heavy. So I try to omit it until later – I want to be fresh and open. Being restrained, reduces your nervous system, which is not good for exploring. I have the idea, I have the compass, the needle is pointing the way. Territory is too subtle to be predicted all the way through.

After several weeks or month I return to my atelier. The backpack is loaded, as my soul is. Things are fully grown. Now it is time to work them through, like a dough which is ready to be processed.

But how does one get into this third phase? You have a lot of dough, the taste is clear but there is no final shape yet. Just throwing everything together would be a foul recipe. The secret is to sense the qualities, especially the ones which you did not expect before you went out. Combine them properly. Work them through and through.

That sound ‘s fair, but still does not answer the question how to enter this third phase. I find the transition into this bit especially challenging. Europastrasse was so intense. I gave tons of energy while I was out. I received so much at the same time. This makes it even more tricky. Everything is wobbling, is moving. How to bake it?

Let the unexpected happen again! I took a video of the Europastrasse. Just the view through the windshield. Hours and hours you see the long and winding road. It takes you all the way through Europe. You get the idea of the Video within seconds, watching it takes weeks – the playing time is almost forever. Of course. It takes you quite a while to cross Europe.

I submitted the video to Crossing Europe, an international Film Festival focusing on European themes. You can’t take crossing Europe more literal. To cut it short, they took it. It will run day and night during the festival, so that it reaches the Vardø within time. From Tuesday, April 25th 2017 until Sunday, April 30th.

So this is how I entered phase 3 of the “Europastrasse” project. Things are flowing.

Having said all that: The next project will be different! I allready know which one is up to realization.

Thinking about book making again. Going into a very intense phase again. On purpose. How do you slip into this phase of a project? The Answer: Differently every time. This time? I will tell you in the next post. For now, I show you a book I just went through. I am in exploring mode. It is about a totally different monolith. In B/W. Europastrasse will be color of course.

WONDERLAND : A Fairy Tale of the Soviet Monolith from kam studio on Vimeo.

I cross the Arctic Circle once again. And once again, it’s marked at the wrong place—in the landscape, in people’s heads. Wrong again, and again, I’m bewildered. But most folks don’t stop here anyway, so it’s of little consequence.

This time around, I’m pondering other matters. It seems wholly absurd to me that it can get dark at night. I’ve now spent over three weeks to the north of said circle. And I’ve gotten used to a lot of things. What’s it like, when it gets dark at night? What’s darkness like, anyway? An experience that I’d had every day of my entire previous life has now been denied me for weeks, and I’m already having trouble comprehending it!

I’ve now long since left the E75, Continue reading →

With a heavy heart. That’s my answer, and it actually surprises me a bit.

Asbjørn is someone whom I got to know in Vardø during my residency there. Continue reading →

I’ve finally seen it, the midnight sun. In good weather, you can spot it right between the two port walls of Vardø at the stroke of midnight!

A tribute to Nature and Stephen Shore

But first things first. Somewhere on the E75, much farther south, I’d contacted the municipality of Vardø, telling them about my project and the destination of my drive, the northeastern-most point.

And a couple days later, I received an invitation from Vardø to exhibit there. That changed something in me. Now I had a goal, a destination, and the knowledge that I’d be welcome there.

And they greeted me most warmly, indeed, and then … they stuck me right in the museum. Which is where I’m living, now. But am I already a museum piece? For an artist, of course, that’s as nice a compliment as there can be … but all jokes aside, it’s wonderful, living in this empty museum; I feel good all over, and I’m in good company. And of course, I’d learned the following beforehand:

Two days after my arrival, Vardø was going to open its new library at the town hall. And they ended up making the E75 exhibition’s opening a part of it, with all due honors.

My pictures now hang in the Glashuset, a modern addition opened three years ago. I’m also impressed by how a community of just 2,000 people can make a cultural statement. This community was hit hard by the decline of the fishing industry over ten years ago—a fact to which vacant buildings bear witness. So they decided to invite in street artists. There are interventions all over the port facility. And just like that, an entire street that could have been depressing was turned exciting. So they set right to dealing with things, discussing their most recent history. Is my hometown doing this, too?

I return home—to the museum—and ponder that for a bit.

Photo: Asbjørn Nilsen

Opening of the exhibition E75 – Europastrasse

Venue: Glasshuset – Vardø Rådhus (NO)
Monday, 6 June, starting at 12:30 p.m.