VISUALIA is a playground for audiovisual excursion, education and live performance.
Into the Woods is an off-grid festival deep inside the Swedish forest. The landscape is natural with a beautiful little lake as the backdrop for the stage. "We strive to make the festival as sustainable as possible."
Folkhemmet/Solsidan cultural association is a non-profit association and functions as an umbrella for local companies and individual companies in Unnaryd with culture as the main common denominator. The board consists of a group of independent cultural creators living around Kroksjön outside Unnaryd, active in music, art and woodcraft, among other things.
Microcosmic Gazing is a gathering and performance. We meet to wonder about the microscopic, microbiotic, microcosmic reality around and inside us. From time to time we partner with different kinds of humans to explore, create and gaze together.
I applied Microcosmic Gazing to Visualia's micro-residency at Unnaryd and got accepted along with Erik and Hara.
The micro-residency happened at Folkhemmet Unnaryd and we presented our work at Into The Woods festival. The full residency happened in Glommen.
Merle, Leo, Tomas and the residency host/organizer, Jonas, also joined at Folkhemmet and festival.
My dear friend Pedro was responsible for the beautiful pictures that follow. He was also my legs when I hurt my foot, a creative partner and an anchor during the tides.
Ellen, Rose, Per-Olov and Jessica arrived in waves during the residency and were each essential part of the performances, amphitheater setup and warm energy who I'm convinced everybody felt!
During the time I was at the residency what I remember the most were the walks. Walking to eat, walking to see something or someone. Walking to explore. Cloud gazing, poking bark, inspecting moss.
At the house, in the morning, J would be waiting to look with us at the microscope. J is a young German neighbor who got really excited about the micro world and became star of the Microcosmic Gazing experience during the residency.
Summer gives us short nights so that gave us a lot of free and wanderous time during the days. As soon as sun was down, we were out testing projectors.
The initial idea for the festival was a forest walk. We picked locations and made a script but as soon as the festival started, this idea crumbled.
Insted, we sat by the road with the microscope and captured the curious eye that walked passed while making the recordings for the evening performances. Pedro named the place the "Moss Valey".
The performances during the evening were done around a fire and sitting on beautiful, comfy floor furniture. Our stage was called The Amphitheater. It felt like home and had a friendly happy jam energy.
Somehow it amazed people to know the abstract and magic images they were looking at night came from the lake they were bathing during the day.
A few people questioned "what am I looking at?". I felt that knowing the names and species would bring some peace of mind to them.
Most people made a "WOW!" sound when they were playing with the hand microscope as they adjusted the focus. I believe the most important part of the reaction was because *they* were adjusting the focus.
The "best images" came from a sample that brewed for a couple of days and from a still puddle by the lake. Letting it sit is important.
Talking about Dave Ackley's quote on large and small and Jay Silver's re-seeing the world was the underlying theme of most my conversations.
There is a whole village to thank, kind of literally. I'm blessed by the kindness of everybody involved on the festival and the collectives supporting it.
Thank you Jonas for being the person behind every time there is a Microcosmic Gazing performance, enabling a dream becoming true.
I'm eternally thankful to my good old friend Pedro who was next me sharing the hole process. His presence multiplied my joy greatly!
murilopolese@gmail.com / www.murilopolese.com