A LETTER TO GJERDRUM
What can art do for a traumatized community? How is Gjerdrum dealing with its post traumatic situation?

It has been three years since the Beirut port explosion. The horror and pain still cross my body every day. In these three years I have been learning how to live with traumatic thoughts. What helps me the most in this process is time and people.

There is a line between “everyone” and the people who know or are related to one of the victims. It is difficult to move on when the absence of loved ones is a constant reminder of the disaster.

I believe art has a potential to balance the dark disturbing worlds with lighter and more hopeful ones, while being poetic yet pragmatic. In situations like the landslide in Gjerdrum, the port explosion in Beirut, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the flooding in Libya and many other endless examples, hope becomes a survival instinct that helps you to handle the dark states of mind caused by a crisis. Hope is the community created by serendipitous events. And time gives hope, when one sees that years have passed and life is continuing. Time becomes a distance that allows one to zoom out and observe. A space where you are forced to learn new skills and habits, and where sparks of hope can occur in between all the sadness.

In the process of creating a work for LANDART Gjerdrum, I met the rescue team who were on site the night the landslide happened. I was wowed and shocked by their stories. One story in particular stood out for me. When they arrived on the site, it was very dark and cold and they were still unaware of the disaster`s scale. There were still a lot of uncertainties on where they could park their trucks, as the land was still sliding. In this unclear situation, they met a local tractor guy who was plowing snow in the area. He told them in a convincing and trustworthy way which area was safe to park their big fire trucks. His local knowledge allowed the rescue team to park closer to the affected area than they originally thought was possible. This safe area was used as a drop off zone by the helicopters when handing over rescued people to the rescue team. This helped them save valuable time and fuel for the helicopters, hence maximizing the time for air search over the landslide. After tracking down and meeting the local tractor guy, I discovered that he had no idea that the local knowledge he shared with the rescuers was crucial in this situation and saved many lives. I could see from his facial expression how much it meant to him to learn about this.

Based on these conversations, I have created “Healing Blanket, a platform of serendipities”. The blanket is a 15x5m piece of fabric I have brought with me from Beirut, and will be used as a picnic carpet, where locals are invited to share a meal and tell their stories.

The blanket was installed on the grass a few weeks before the picnic. When it is removed, the trace of time becomes visual by the difference in the grass state under and around where the blanket was placed.