Fellows

Beehives - Jerker Beckman

"The Great Fire", 2018 by Jerker Beckman; Image: (c) Markus Gårder, Västmanlands Teater, 2018

Jerker Beckman ( Sweden )

Certain species of ants form supercolonies, which are a number of separate colonies living within the same physical structure, maintaining distance and exclusivity while sharing and collaborating. We are used to seeing ourselves as one unit, one undividable individual. But the cells in every living thing are individually alive. We are also not only cells, each of us also consist of several kilos worth of bacteria, who are as much a part of us as the cells. Each of these bacteria is still a living creature in its own right.

The basis of the idea is to suggest that the sum of us inhibiting a city together constitute a singular living, thinking and acting creature. Each of us are, while looking out for our individual and group interests, also at the same time working as cells or constitutional bacteria of the larger body of the city. Thus the city is a living thing, with thoughts, ideas, plans and dreams.

"Kompass", 2021, by Jerker Beckman; Image: (c) Jerker Beckman, 2020
"Melancholia", 2019 by Jerker Beckman; Image: (c) Lars Kroon, Smålands Musik och Teater, 2019
"Here Comes the Future", 2022 by Jerker Beckman; Image: (c) Klara G, Västmanlands Teater, 2020

Svenska Författarfonden Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse