Premiere: 29th of June 2024
Knislinge town
Milvus Art Research Residency (MARC)
The initial impulse of the project:
“It all started when I was looking out the window of my apartment. People walking on the streets from point A to point B. Their paths are rigid and sharp. A-right-left-straight-left-right-right-B.
Same houses, same lampposts, same junctions. It is hard to get lost in a town where I know all the streets by heart. Could I dream of getting lost in the unknown gardens? Could I dream of climbing over the fence and continuing from there?”
OFFROAD: Knislinge is an alternative trail that on the 29th of June 2024 took the audience from one Knislinge town sign to another through reimagined pathways - gardens, greenbelts etc - while avoiding the streets we are normally forced walk on. 35 private gardens were incorporated in the project plus the already existing fields and secret pathways. It was an invitation to imagine alternative and unknown routes in a familiar environment. A realization of a dream in which our paths no longer follow a rigid grid and, with the help of homeowners, are set free.
I was interested in using the urban environment as it is. The curated frontal views of the gardens make us believe we know our home towns. Yet taking a slight detour into the gardens takes us very quickly into unknown territory. The psysical engagement in climbing fences and taking part in mischievous acts like stealing pre-planted items from gardens or knocking doors and running away made the participants feel like children again. "I have lived in Knislinge for 30 years and I have never experienced my home town like this" was one feedback I received from an audience member.
The fences mark the borders between public and private. I was fascinated how to build a dialogue with the home owners that they would allow us to trespass. How to explain the aims and goals. How to make our journey experiencial as an installation also for the home owners as they are sitting on the porch or observe from the windows? How to engage the home owners into the actions (like one home owners kids greeted the audience with water pistols as we tried to steal pre-planted bowl of strawberries)?
