Ullsta Art Walk 2023

Along a kilometre-long hiking trail through forest terrain, also along open fields with wide views, 27 artists have been invited to create works of art at each selected location.
I have location number 3 along the trail and have chosen to create based on the theme “Nature’s voice – human comfort”. Originally, this was an idea to invite visitors to stop and listen to the natural sounds of animal calls, the rustling of leaves and branches in the wind, and perhaps even feel the muted tone of natural presence that the forest environment generates.

However, while working on the installation, the project grew into an interactive and ritual space to also create inner healing in the contact between the outer nature and the inner existential human nature.
Therefore, I encourage visitors to stop in front of the artwork and the surrounding environment and feel how their own body responds to the situation.
If the visitor then comes into contact with something that causes concern and/or shakes the consciousness, it is possible to relieve the concern by finding a natural object on the ground around them that can represent the concern, pick up the object and place it in one of the open, concrete bowls on the site.
Once the concern has been ‘sacrificed’ to nature in this way, the visitor can leave it behind and move on with a clear mind.

After some time, I noticed that the bowls were quickly filling up with items for visitors’ worries and realised that another component was needed on the site, to complete the natural cycle of allowing the worries to return to the wholeness from which they appeared. So I created a compost box, whose triangular shape symbolises the burning power of fire and helps assimilate the worries back into the Earth, where they contribute to new life.
From time to time I go out to the site and empty the bowls of items and place them in the compost bin.
This closes the cycle and completes the healing process.

A spirit of nature watches over all of this, represented by the white sculpture closest to the forest, as with its gold coloured crack is exposing its natural vulnerability, and the red cabinet with the floating stone represents the lightness the visitor can feel after lifting his or her worries.

Lars Berg, July 2023