“Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.”
– Ken Robinson
Lorenzburg is a culture project that works with residential area transformation, collective storytelling and neighborhood identity. The project plays out as the founding of a “micronation” in order to give it a playful framework. the artist Freï von Fräähsen zu Lorenzburg is the author and manager of the project, and the residents are considered to be the main collaborators even though external artists and local institutions, organisations and societies take part. A pilot study was carried out in 2015. In it there were interviews with residents in the city section as well as an initial investigation into how to collaborate with local parties.
The culture project of Lorenzburg rests on three pillars:
Culture – Culture and cultivation means to “farm or grow” and this is true also of ideas, dreams, innovation and community. Lorenzburg is an invitation to collective play, as well as individual emancipation, by participating in the founding of a Fairytale Realm in an Urban Environment. We seek to create a dynamic and welcoming local culture and community through collective storytelling, arts and crafts, and the playful manifestation of brand new and all made up local traditions!
Participation – In Lorenzburg we strive to create and strengthen a Nourishing Neighborhood. This will be achieved through a series of concrete workshops where Citizens meet artists, academics and innovators.
The physical expanse of Lorenzburg coincides with the borders of the city section of the city districts Kroppkärr and Lorensberg in Karlstad, but the true nation is hidden, vast and without borders. Everyone is welcome in this ethereal nation. The Principality of Lorenzburg is a protector of each individual’s supreme right to live, love and grow as they choose. The nation celebrates the carnivalesque and majestic qualities that is innate within all humans. Therefore everyone and anyone is welcome, regardless of ethnicity, creed or previous history. The Department for Open Borders shall oversee that no one is turned away: Come as you are, become who you want to be!
Development – Lorenzburg has a special focus in the areas of Site and Branding and Local perspectives in a Global neighborhood. Through an active and focused work the initial project lays the foundation to the Lorenzburg brand – a place to inhabit and visit. The development project becomes a platform for local production and innovation. The project strives to be a good model for how artists can lead site-specific developmental projects.
We are entering various collaborations in order to stimulate the local Urban Agriculture. By collectively farming the communal spaces we harness the local resources while simultaneously creating opportunities for community activities. It is our vision that all playgrounds and similar public spaces shall be planted only with edible and healthy plants and vegetables.
Since signing the Alcatraz Environmental Treaty in early 2016, we also seek to initiate projects for Urban Bee Husbandry in order to preserve and protect wild pollinating insects. This will be done in collaboration with the University of Karlstad.