Month: January 2022

A little bird appeared on my window this morning, right next to the desk where I usually sit. It was a yellow and blue bird: in English it’s called a “great tit”, which sounds a bit funny to my ears, but in Swedish it’s “talgoxe”, and in Italian it’s “cinciallegra”. They are pretty common in…

“Dangerous winds”, said the weather report. The trees outside were swinging as if they were drunk and dancing to ABBA songs. There were news of power shortages in the neighbourhood. “Don’t go out”, said everyone. But I feel as if my days here are slowly ending, and of course I had to go out, wind…

In my first attempt to use the washing machine here at the house — the only washing machine for miles, unless we ask a neighbour to wash our clothes, or go to the launderette in Norrtälje which is 48 km away, unless there is something at Älmsta which is slightly nearer at 30 km —…

Today, a certain desperation set in. I realized with alarm that I am already in the middle of my stay in Sweden! I have written very little of my script! I have not visited neither Stockholm nor Uppsala! I did not meet almost any Swedish people! I did not discover the secrets of the Scandinavian…

Today the day was mostly consumed assisting with the filming of a performance by other artists who are residing or visiting up here. I do not have much idea of what it was about, other that it involved ties being tied around a person. It is interesting that most of the artists currently residing or…

Yesterday I was told that the “aurora borealis”, also known as northern lights, might be seen late at night, even from down here at Björkö. So I set my alarm clock to wake me up at 3:30 AM. But at first I could not sleep, and when I finally did, I kept dreaming that I…

Today I just made a short walk to Marum, near the sea, across frozen swamps, but yesterday we watched the Swedish film “Tillsammans” (Together, 2000) by Lukas Moodysson. It is about a sort of hippie community in the 1970s in Stockholm. I had seen it years ago when it came out, but I didn’t remember…

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If I write a daily report from Sweden but no one reads it, does it even exist? Walking around the local forest here at Björkö, you will notice several fallen trees, here and there. And…

Today the temperature went up, it was sunny and 6 degrees Celsius outside. A lot of the snow around had melted and one could have a better idea of how idyllic this place can look during summer. I walked with a fellow artists to the coast of Simpnås. I had been there before, but this…

I am staying in an old house in Björkö that is now an Arts Residence space, with studios and apartments for artists, filmmakers and writers, but which until very recently was an elementary school. (It closed in 2017). And it seems to be an old school, perhaps from the beginning of the century, although I…