The place we stand, secretly lonely
An anthropological co-creative exhibition about long-term loneliness. By Arendse Reeh in collaboration with Værket and Arnestedet.
The words in the long poem read belong to participants from the Work. Their different voices and experiences are written together into a common self; to gain insight into how the participants experience loneliness in their own way, conveyed as a common voice.
Throughout the autumn, several participants from the Red Cross Capital Branch, together with anthropologist Arendse Reeh, have created a language for loneliness through sound and images from disposable cameras. In the co-created exhibition, we look through the participants' eyes at a world that they experience reflects a feeling of loneliness within them. Their concrete experiences and thoughts are closely linked to the images and are told through their own voices. Follow their thoughts down through the exhibition.
Through the exhibition you will hear voices from five female participants and two male participants in the age range between 34 and 53 years. Together, through three workshops and several meetings, we have investigated the experience of lasting loneliness through different methods and from different perspectives. We have focused on investigating the condition; What arouses the feeling of loneliness? How is it experienced? And how is loneliness handled during the course of a day? You will see these themes spread like threads around the exhibition in a shared look at loneliness.
The small sound work Think about everything you has is created from the voices of several participants to recreate the loneliness of loneliness they experience by not being met or acknowledged in their experiences when they try to share them. The sound work is created from a conversation one of the participants has had in real life. The other participants whisper the “good” advice they are often met with when they try to share their loneliness with others, which helps to reinforce the feeling of loneliness.
I a joint workshop We focused on the existential and bodily experience of loneliness. Participants closed their eyes and felt where loneliness was located in their bodies while recalling memories of feeling lonely.
The voice in the audio clips was made in AI, as the participant wanted his voice to be anonymized.
Another workshop consisted of a city walk around Nørrebro. All participants who took part were given a disposable camera so they could take pictures of specific reflections in the street scene that gave them a feeling of loneliness.
In the last workshop participants drew their day while describing how they dealt with loneliness from morning to night. Some of the participants took pictures, wrote in a diary or wrote to me via text message during the days to give a glimpse into their everyday lives. The participants, as they moved through the day, had one thing in common: they tried to distract themselves from loneliness through practical tasks and distractions.
The last poem in the exhibition was written by one of the participants as a way of being in and accepting one's loneliness.