SKÅNE ON FILM
Sixteen years ago I sat on my dear friend Megan’s kitchen floor in Williamsburg with her roommate Becky, talking about everything, laughing my ass off, and likely oversharing about an internal journey I was on. Luckily I was in great company, as Megan and Becky are both brilliant and intuitive and creative, and held (and continue to hold) all of my meandering ways. I’m grateful to hold theirs too.
Becky and I kept in touch through Instagram, as many modern long distance friendships go, and over the years I saw that she fell in love with a Swedish man, moved to Sweden, and had a child right around the same time that I had my daughter. When my family and I decided to go to Sweden this past spring to visit friends in Stockholm and make our pilgrimage to Carl and Karin Larsson’s house in Sundborn, Sweden (more on that soon), I reached out to Becky, curious if she had any recommendations on places to visit in Gothenburg or Stockholm. I didn’t expect her to invite us into her and her sweet family’s home but gladly accepted — they had moved from Gothenburg a couple years back to a beautiful 1860’s schoolhouse-turned-home and studio in Övraby, a village with just a church in the Skåne region of Sweden. We changed up our plans and bought our plane ticket out of Copenhagen, just a 90 minute train ride from nearby Ystad.
Skåne has a different texture than the rest of Sweden — it’s open and agrarian, with minimal trees, gentle rolling hills and pristine, sandy beaches. It’s historically been a haven for artists to leave the city and find space and ease to create, and in the past few years there’s been an influx of people from all over. We met a British man on the train who had done just that 40 years ago, and was making his way to his home in Simrishamn, a charming coastal town nearby. The area reminded me of where I lived in Vermont, where I met Megan, my husband Rob, and several other near and dear friends. The culture is fiercely self reliant, creative, and focused on the stewardship of the land.
Becky and Lars are artists who work together under a couple of different monikers — Werkstad, Beck Projekt, and Poster Skola. Becky is a talented art director and designer who brings in Lars’ masterful artwork to create a vision that feels distinct and crafted. They also work separately when called to. You can see their work here.
We made food (or, truly, Becky and Lars fed us lavishly and made flat whites with lovely designs in the foam; we did some dishes), we talked, we sat on the beach, we flew kites, the kids played tag, we visited the 12th century church next door, and found architectural gems that are dotted around the region. Most notable (to me) being the Mariavall Abbey near Tomelilla by Dom Hans van der Laan, completed in 1991. I even snuck a photo of the tiniest nun I’ve ever seen locking a door in the abbey — when she turned and saw me, she raised her hands around her and looked around and then back to me as if to say, “can you even believe we get to be here?”. I truly could not.
I recently got my film back from this trip, and the photos of Becky, Lars, and Arvid, their home, and the days we spent together felt particularly poignant to me. It was as if my families’ hearts all were translated through our little Leica and imprinted on the film. The coastal light helps. I’m grateful for our time there, and grateful to share these moments with you — both the film and iPhone pics (though we of course know which ones are superior).
- Karie
If you would like to learn more about this region, the NYTimes recently put out a couple articles on it - here and here.
