solekko fest

Student life just kept getting more and more interesting at this point. For a few more credits they organized 2-6 days workshops that we found out about just a few days before happening and I happened to join the Community artwork as ritual space course. No one knew what they were really about, all the information that we had was that we were about to travel somewhere for 4 days.

So on a Wednesday I took the bus with a few other fellows and our coordinator Minna to some place called Kittila. Apparently we were part of a team that was organising a festival, and our task was to decorate a pole while creating a spiritual place. Sounds weird and uncomprehensible? That was our thought for the first days as well. However, as we progressed we started to really enjoy it and have fun with it.

We were basically thought to paint tree bark with melted colourful wax. It was a bit difficult at first because the wax was quite hard to control, but when Minna saw the struggles we were going through, she kept telling us how beautiful everything was turning out. People here, especially the ones at the Solekko Festival, don’t really care about that perfectly alligned and rigid design, they appreciate and encourage the imperfection and messiness of nature, following your instinct and doing art from the soul was the purpose.

Those days I learned to let go of my need to constantly improve and just go with the flow in the artistic process, and it really turned out good, colourful, happy. There was an energy there, indeed spiritual and indeed beautiful.