Note · 15 July 2026
[ku] 27/26 Art
By the fire in Hämeenlinna, a night without darkness.
Evening gathering in Rolf's garden, before the fire is lit.
In a few days I have met more new people than at home in two years. None of it was chance, more a chain of open doors.
A Network That Reaches Further Than Planned
In just a few days in Hämeenlinna I have met more new people than at home in two years. Most of them seemingly by chance, but as I write I notice the word is wrong. It was more a chain of open doors. The first was opened many years ago in Hanover, at Round Table, a service club whose motto to this day is three words: Adopt, Adapt, Improve. Along this thread there had been contact with Lappeenranta for years, and from there I came to Ville and Rolf, the first visitors to my exhibition.
A Night Without Darkness
That evening, by the fire, under a sky that refused to go dark, a Finnish word came up: yötön yö, the nightless night. Hämeenlinna lies at 61 degrees north, the sun set just before eleven, and it never got truly dark afterward, only a long, warm dusk until morning. It was in that very night that I understood why my series Heimat bears the name it does.
Who the healer by the fire was, what he said about energy, and how the circle closed in the end, I have written down at length in the magazine.
Read the whole story in the magazine →