Our final day of filming in the forests of northern Sweden as part of Moskosel Creative Lab. Working in these special landscapes with filmmaker and my partner Christian Kipp across these days has been a tremendous privilege. I am reminded of the resiliency of the body to adapt to different environments. I am also reminded of the ability for artist led organisations such as the lab here to work in organic ways that shift and change with the movement in and out of different local, national and international makers. There is also a strong tie to the community and a wonderful entanglement between those that live on the land, make a home here and those that come to engage with it and cohabitate with each other.
Having the flexibility of a dancer I have been researching ways in which my body can resiliently reside in, adapt to and recover. I move with and among the landscape here that has a lot to teach us about resilient beingness, when resiliency no longer works under pressure and how bending to adapt can be both an asset and cause strain. Resilience theory argues that it’s not the nature of adversity that is most important, but how we deal with it. How do we collaborate with the landscape as to be aware of our traces from our movement and to be affected by the movement around us?
According to Dr. Garmezy, ‘resilience is not the quality of being brave in the face of adversity. Rather, it is the quality of recovering and maintaining adequate behavior despite facing emotional distress’. What might we consider adequate behaviour within landscapes to maintain healthy relations with it so we do not distress it but allow it to thrive with and through us?
Christian Kipp & Sara Wookey
www.christiankipp.com / www.sarawookey.com
References
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/JA-120034010