In many of my works for the parallel project, I have looked at how our history in the house, which started when we moved here abruptly on the day the Covid 19 lockdown started, intertwines with the story of the house or the objects in it.

We ended up spending 3.5 months in the house with my partner, daughter and granddaughter and our friend Tom.

My partners parents and sister with family were now coming to visit us and see the house . This was the first time that we all met after the long isolation brought by the pandemic.

I wanted to include them all, and connect them to the story of this house that I am exploring through various artistic projects. I initiated a “performance” or “happening” where I invited everyone to collect various bits and pieces of left over objects from the former owners, to collectively build a symbolical house. I was aiming at deepening the conversation around what home and belonging means to us- a subject I am exploring for the Critical Review. After having spent weeks confined to our respective homes, these feel like very relevant questions. Also what it would mean to NOT have a home, as a homeless person or a refugee.

It was an extremely hot, windy and dusty day and I was truly amazed at how enthusiastically all of them joined in and played along!

This is our final “home”:

And here we are proudly posing for the groupphoto:

It is harder than it looks to build something as simple as this shelter!

After the action, I did a small interview with every member of the family separately and created the below 5 minute video:

My main objective here, was to include this side of the family who were new to this part of our story with this peculiar house. This worked wonderfully- everyone participated eagerly and all mentioned how they had felt the team spirit while building.

The film got very “nice” and positive and everyone had nice things to say about family and being together. In this sense, I believe the action was a success. In truth, like most families today, this is a patchwork modern family, with many differences and the harmony we felt on this day, was quite exceptional. It was not the aim of this action, nor of the movie, but I would be curious to also explore how we all, despite having homes and families, struggle to feel belonging.