Returning. Tiny Spaces deep Connections, Day 29

Potsdam - Berlin - Hannover - Karlsruhe - Paris - night train to Toulouse 

Three weeks flew by. The sourdough starter and I are travelling back to Spain, taking a different route through France. I am leaving a trail of cosmos daydream seedbombs again.  

In the train I am embroidering the questions people left during the final presentation, "Wann machen wir eine Pause?" 

It is exciting but mainly sad to encounter two elephants when exploring the area close to the railway station in Karlsruhe. And the same goes for the planters in front of the station entrance, a mix of real and plastic flowers in bright colours. It has been intruiging to see how they deal with plants and nature in and around railway stations, a subject I never really thought about until I went on this journey. Something to explore more in the future?

In Paris Austerlitz I leave a small jar with starter in public space and eat at an Asian restaurant called Le Petit Bonheur, simple and delicious. "C'etait un grand bonheur!" I tell the owner when I leave.  

I share my compartment from Paris to Toulouse with five people and their luggage. It is a tiny space and it is a bit of a puzzle and sometimes a weird kind of dance to get everything and everybody in place, but the beds are comfortable and there is something soothing about moving while sleeping.

 

Welcome. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 27

 

 

 

 

 

Activities. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 24

Transforming the leftovers and failures from the ceramic workshop into clay powder, to be reused in seedbombs. I like the fact that the material has been going through different hands and will have a new function. Testing the material qualities of the seedbomb mixture, creating different shapes, some random, some conceptually thought through (or at least to some extend). Dreaming about a human size seedbomb rolling through streets, being pushed by many people. Embroidering somebody’s question at the meeting point/book exchange at the entrance. While distracting seeds from their pods (I am still collecting as many different seeds from the garden as possible) I discover somebody sleeping in one of them.

Whereas we human beings tend to get slower on a hot day like this, the sourdough starter becomes super active. 

 

Balance. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 21 - 23

Days for reflection and thinking about final work, letting everything slowly fall in place. There is a little garden in front of my temporary home I like a lot. The tree stump resembles a pedestal. Could I install something there? I do some balancing exercises with stones and look at the shadow play of the light filtering through the trees. The Japanese have a word for this, komorebi, I learned this when watching Wim Wenders’ film “Perfect Days” in which it plays an important role. I read a little in the book I found in the yellow phonebooth that is a public book exchange and doubles as a meeting point. I always trust I find the right book at the place where I will be living and working and I was delighted to find Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees as mentioned a few days ago, a book about a boy who decides to live in the trees after he gets tired of his wealthy parents’ lifestyle and never comes down again. More seed collecting and drying plants for teas. And after being hosted by the community here for a barbecue, I return the favour unplanned to a homeless man who sneaks into my outdoor kitchen and cooks himself a feast meal with all he can find. 

Also: making a little video to go with the interview for TaikaBox, the Finnish partner organisation in the Tiny Spaces Deep Connections project (the third one is Communitism in Greece). You can read the interview, "Rewild your mind" HERE

 

Many things. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 18 - 20

During the public presentation on Thursday, where I talk about my work, I am very inspired by Van Bo Le-Mentzel who speaks before it is my turn. He is an architect and designer and unconventional thinker who became known for his simple and inexpensive self-assembly instructions for furniture and then continued working on the idea of democratic design by developing tiny houses and living spaces. 
On Friday we visit an interlocking tower where there is the possibility to install a video projection, visible from the outside, as if there is a whole different world inside. Most railway interlocking towers, once used to operate switches and manage signals, have been replaced by centralized electronic operation. Inside it is as if time has stood still. In the S-Bahn I embroider a question somebody shared with me the day before: “Was inspiriert dich?”, what inspires you?
The workshop in the weekend is wonderful. We walk through the garden and discover all the wild plants and their uses, we hang out with plants (an exercise or way of spending time with plants I learned from Mark Watson), we make drawings with natural ink, prepare lunch with some of the things we found and some of the vegetables that were used to make ink. Last but not least we make seedbombs and when I explain that they don’t need to be little balls, Lana comes up with a plan to make catnip seedbombs and shapes the clay and soil mixture into little cat heads.

(Text on the photo: People don't want big rooms, they want big dreams. Interview with Van Bo le Mentzel HERE) 

Colours and flavours. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 17

 

I made natural ink in the last days for my own use and for the workshop this Saturday. Different colours and different preparation methods. There are alcohol based inks (f.e. yellow, curcuma, light pink, rose) and water based inks (f.e. red: beet, green: spinach, pink: rose, brown: coffee, purple: wild cherries) but I also like to experiment with other ways to catch the colour, for example by using beets as stamps, or the yellow sap from the greater celandine straight from the plant, or even just putting a used teabag on a piece of paper. 
I prepare a dough with rose petals and lemon balm in the oven house. It would have been wonderful to use the old traditional wood oven, but this only makes sense when you bake a lot of bread or pizza, since it needs a lot of wood and a lot of time firing it. 

 

Floating. Tiny Spaces Deep Connections, Day 16

 The first thing that drew my attention when I arrived were the endless number of winged seeds, helicopter seeds, whirling down and lying scattered on the ground around the Bauwagen I live in. I share my space with the “Spitzahorn”, Acer platanoides and I’ve been collecting and experimenting with the seeds. 

Somewhere on my suit there is a question embroidered in Dutch that says “Do you think I need wings?”.

In the yellow phone booth —now book exchange and meeting point— I found a book by one of my favourite writers, Italo Calvino. Der Baron auf den Bäumen, The Baron in the Trees. It is about a young boy who is fed up with his parents bourgeoisie life and their rules and decides to live in the trees. He never comes down again and turns into a respected member of the community, somebody people go to for help and advise. It is a book about chosing an alternative lifestyle, ecology, community building, living with nature, and it touches upon everything my life here is about. 

Things always fall in place when you take the time to let it happen. And until then, you are floating.