After my first couple of rainy days in Emmaboda, a few impressions and thoughts might be worth jotting down.

• Firstly, the studio space is amazing. As you may see on Björn’s bicycling video recordings below, the sheer space of 1600 square meters on 4 floors, in what was previously a furniture department store, makes you want to think BIG when preparing for our creative work. It has us excited and grateful towards the generous council. However personally, I experience the scale even sligthly intimidating 😉
• Secondly, the meeting with other creative minds from, for the moment, as various places as Sweden, UK and Hungary and their interaction with each other, their work and the local community, this, which together is the main aims of the project, is always inspiring and refreshing.
• Thirdly on a more reflecting note, after meeting the dejected young owner of the furniture store, who is happy just to see the space being used, and wandering around in it, finding old posters and items from booming times several decades ago, it will be interesting to see how being creative in a deflated community, that already has flourished in a sense, as opposed to the more familiar process of gentrification [run down area – artists move in – makes it hip – draws the interests of upper middle class people who moves in and catapults the rents – artists moves to another run down area and so on.. ] will affect the result. Of course there are similarities with the two processes. Will it naturally lean more towards a conservative expression or is it so open and free that we will be liberated to express ourselves out on the creative edge?

Oh and yes, we’ve heard not to wander in to the local American Rockabilly Car club [raggarställe in Swedish], because we will be beaten up – apparently.

/Dan