I’m writing this post in reflection to the song Le Fleurs du Mal by Sahale - you can put it on too, while reading.
It’s been an interesting month. I’ve definitely been more active than I intended to, but that’s not super abnormal. Rather, it’d have been abnormal to stick to that intention. It’s still there though, I’m still working on it. Yet, it’s a hard balance while working on both urgent and long term projects. But I’m excited about all of them, and I think that’s the reason I tend to be a bit all over the place. It’s just too interesting!
The last few weeks I spent in Tuscany, Italy, where I actually managed to stick to a few things while taking time to just enjoy and reside with my family. It’s not that often we can all get together for that amount of time, so we really appreciate it when it happens.
We stayed in a beautiful farm house at the countryside with a few getaways to Siena and Rome, and I definitely have to come back. “You always have to come back to Rome again and again.” Quote: mom. She’s right. It’s a magnificent place.
After a long car ride through Austria, Germany and eventually Denmark, I touched base on the farm for a few hours before packing up again. This time, I filled a car with art supplies and dropped them off at ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, where I’ll be staying the rest of the month as artist in residence. It was quite exciting to enter my all time favorite museum with my own stuff to be honest.
Today is my first day there, and I have a whole lot to set up and get here - I have at least a handful of projects to carry out during my stay, and all the supplies are all over the city. I imagine feeling that “ahh I arrived” feeling one always gets when moving all their things into a new home. Stay tuned on my social media for more shares on the residency — I’m gonna be sharing everything.
And speaking of that arrival-feeling… I shared a bit about that on my social media earlier this month. Maybe you read it, maybe not. I wrote about the mixed feelings in living a nomad lifestyle. I don’t know if it suits me in the long run - but then again, I feel the same about staying in the same location for a longer period of time. One of my close friends recently urged me to get a carry-on program or structure of living, because as she saw it, this is probably never gonna change. This mix of nomading and staying, I mean. I never knew what suited me better, one or the other - but then I saw an exhibition about Djengis Khan and how him and his people used to live. They’d move all their things and themselves in villages from place to place every few years. I remember, I really resonated with that, and maybe that’s how the future will look like for me. For the next year though, I’ll continue life in a bag, with a few longer stays here in Denmark, in Guatemala, Chile and other parts of Europe before hopefully finding the next base in Copenhagen. We’ll see about that, but it’s the vision for now. And in the meantime, oh my God I’m blessed with friends and family I can stay with in between the travels! So now you’re updated on that process.
Hm. I always find it hard to know how much to share on my channels, but I surely enjoy the feedback and shares back. I figure, since I’ll continue to share my artistic journey, it’s impossible to not expose the person behind.
I’ve tried not to be political in my shares as well, but this too is hard. By the way, the song has changed by now — if you want to continue listening with me, my playlist is now playing Shanghai Roar with Lydmor, it’s a fantastic piece of art.
One of the reasons of my nomadic life is an extended waiting time to be reunited with my Chilean partner - it’s quite the obstacle to get a visa in the same country for us, but we’re aiming for Denmark this time next year, and that keeps my head up. I’m not one to complain in public about this, but I do want to express that it’s hard to understand the limitations of freedom for people just based in the place they’re born. In general, I find it hard to understand things the more I grow up. You surely must relate to that. Lately I’ve been made aware of the human rights taken away from women in the states, the ongoing lack of human rights for women in the Faroe Islands, the abuse on the women in Greenland for decades, the abuse of female refugees and the list will go on the further away I look from my own place of residence.
So now I’ll put on “Alt Hvad Hun Ville Var At Danse” with Tina Dickow.
How can I not get political as a feminist artist? More importantly, what can I do with the birds in my hands? This question is ongoing in my mind, and I’m sure it will lead somewhere while just supporting the movements that are leading the fight for equal rights everywhere. I hope more can support them as well or at least stay informed, so the conversations can move and push around. I think it’s about time to get the equality straight and move on all together.
To finish this very mixed, slightly vulnerable blog post, I encourage you to keep the equality talks going. I also encourage you to seize local feminist groups and organizations or check out Global Fund for Women, AWID, UN Women and Women’s Refugee Commission. They’re all doing a fantastic work and make it easy to support them regardless of one’s own limitations in this regard.
Lots and lots of love
Lot