Food Studio

Since then I have felt a longing to find my way back to this creative space, both the opportunity to work in that way, but also the time and resources to make it happen in the phase of life I am in now, as a mother of small children and a body that is no longer 20 years old with endless energy.

When I was asked by Anne Beate Hovin to contribute to Future Library this year, I felt an immediate yes. Not because she described the perfect commission, or had a large budget, but because I have an enormous trust and respect for her work, her way of being in the world and her creative force. It is not something I have observed from a distance, it is something I have slowly but surely experienced through 15 years of co-creation, by listening to talks where she in her visionary clarity has described a practice of creating practical utopias. Visions that are difficult for most people to connect with, but that you believe in when you are there and witness the gravel mound that was the starting point for Losæter transform into the oasis it is today. I have always had respect for the leaders who understand what the people they lead are going through, and she is one of them. She knows what it is to be in it herself and is not afraid to roll up her sleeves when things get tough.

One of the most important things she wanted to convey to the guests sitting around the table that evening, was that the most important ingredient in making art projects of the dimension that both Losæter and Future Library have become, is trust. Both projects were commissioned on behalf of Bjørvika Utvikling in 2011 with a reference to the space Snøhetta had created on the opera roof. An open space for the people, with qualities like slowing down and finding stillness, and a visual reference to the bigger picture, if you also consider that the opera roof looks like a sinking ice floe.

I have never had any formal process around the experiences I have created in Food Studio. There is a trust that the people who are meant to be there will show up, and that what we then create together is good enough, as long as everyone is free to be themselves in their creative field. It can be intense, it can be uncomfortable to lead so much uncertainty, but there is always trust at the foundation. Trust in the process, in the people involved and in one’s own experience and judgement.

The team that co-created this evening for Future Library at Losæter was sculptor Hélène Arja, designer So Takahashi, musician Kristoffer Pahle, visual artist Tone Bjordam, designer Christel Roshol, pastry chef Valeryia Stepantsova, musician Eivind Stordal and me, founder of Food Studio Cecilie Dawes.

The first to come on board was Hélène, perhaps because she had followed the project from her student days at AHO and taken part in the ceremonies during the first four years. I didn’t need to say anything about what we were doing to her. She already had a completely clear vision of what she wanted to create.

So was the one who took charge of making sure we had to be at Losæter. We connected in the shared desire to design unique experiences and bring in multiple layers of storytelling through the senses. Tone and I share the same understanding, that we both create experiences. She as a visual artist, I in my own way, and we got to know each other in the forest where she has her creative space. I noticed her enormous care for all living things, with an ability to connect that I have rarely seen. Almost as if she speaks the same language as the animals, the insects and the plants. We often say that one of the most fundamental flaws in today’s society is the separation between us humans and nature. Perhaps that is why experiencing a person who lives the opposite is so powerful.

Kristoffer came on board during the winter through the building of a creative community. Music is his primary language and it became natural that it was what he created in, both through his own projects and through good friends and fine people he saw something in. Eivind is one of those who has recently joined Kristoffer in the studio, and when he found out the story behind the room inside Deichman Bjørvika that he often uses as a meditation space, he didn’t need much convincing.

Christel suddenly sent an email. I thought someone had tipped her off to get in touch, but they hadn’t. She had simply found her way to us through the internet and all the small seeds sown there, and felt that here was something she wanted to explore further. I don’t know how many have come to us when they have felt they needed a new direction in life, and that space of transformation is one of the things I believe is the most valuable of what we create. Three months have now passed and Christel is preparing to move to Aarhus to study at Kaospilot. It will be a great loss, but also a great joy on her behalf.

Valeria had sent me a message on Instagram earlier in the winter when my capacity didn’t quite stretch. I had said I would love to grab a coffee when things settled down, and never quite followed up. When this project came along, she reappeared and I had to go back and find the thread. It turned out to be exactly right, and both she and her partner joined. That she also took full responsibility for the closing of the meal and composed her own work in the form of a beautiful macaron with rhubarb, real vanilla, thyme and rosehip petals, could not have been more fitting.

Simon Prosser, one of the publishers who has been part of Future Library from the very beginning, shared how he experienced the meal. He described the careful precision in every detail: Hélène’s bare feet, the beautiful words that were spoken, the music playing in the background, the beautiful colours of all the raw ingredients presented before them, and the scent of wild herbs hung to dry in the room. He said it felt like a ritual.

That we were allowed to be at Losæter felt deeply special too, not least because I know the history so well from the start. I have stood there and watched the artists in hard hats help build the foundation, I was given a brick myself as a symbol that I and Food Studio were a part of it. I know that the furniture is designed to fit perfectly, handmade, and that the dough trough builds on thousands of years of tradition. I know all the layers of intention and love the place is built upon, and there is something truly special about being allowed to create there.