Commissioned by Eskilstuna municipality, coordinator Erik Roren.
In collaboration with Skjulstaskolans 4:th and 5:th grade.
Public assignment from municipality of Eskilstuna, as part of a programme to activate recreation area of Vilsta,
and to engage with children from nearby housing areas.
Kultivators idea for an artistic collaboration with children and that area, was to play a game, where they together with the children could explore new ways to look at and engage with the surrounding.
The game is to imagine that Vilsta is an unknown planet. “What if we were aliens that came to Vilsta. What would we see? What would we think about it?” And, of course, “What would our spaceship look like?”
Through the municipality contact was made with nearby school Skjulstaskolan, that opened up for a collaboration by adjusting their schedules, and giving important feedback into which age groups that would fit best to work with. The most important factor, though, was the great engagement and understanding from the teachers, both of the artistic idea, and the abilities of the children to work with it.
During the spring semester of 2017, Kultivator worked in close collaboration with the children around the story that an alien ship with extraterrestrials came to the Vilsta area. The children created clay models of spaceships, wrote stories and made drawings, that all contributed to the final design of the spaceship that was to be made for permanent installation in the area. The school also spend one whole day out in the area, where small groups of children imagined to be aliens, and made investigations of the new planet they had encountered. The investigations were collected by Kultivator, and processed to 6 different “information boards”, that were to be put inside the spaceship.
With inspiration from ancient times shipbuilding, and future´s need for renewable materials, Kultivator choose for oak as material for the spaceship. The area of Eskilstuna has many oak trees growing, and was historically exporting oak for shipbuilding industry. Oak being the most resilient wood that does not need coating or treatment to survive outdoors, was also an important reason to use it.
The blueprint for the spaceship was based on the drawings and models from the children, further developed by Kultivator, and finally made into technical drawings that could be used for constructing a safe, beautiful and durable building, lasting at least 15 years, with minimal maintenance.
Inside the building is a bench to sit on, and in the middle a piece of a tree trunk with a magnifying glass mounted in it, for having a closer look at found objects. In this room the game can be played again and again.. “we just landed, let´s see what we can find on this planet…” A “game recipe” is made, based on the assignment the children of Skjulstaskolan had when they were exploring the surrounding of the ship together with Kultivator. The recipe can be found on Eskilstuna municipality website, and is to be used by teachers, parents, or others who would like to play..
So the surrounding of Vilsta can become an unknown planet, to be discovered again and again. Both of those who grow up right now, the ones who has travelled here, and us that walked here for so long that we stopped seeing the miracles and mysteries right in front of us.
UPDATING