Today we publish the first part of the pictures and texts you sent to us made during the Willy&Penn workshop at our Special gathering 2020. We asked you to find and present one object that had some meaning or representation of your life during the covid-19 lockdown. We heard all kinds of interessting stories, some we could personally relate to, but all gave us insight into each others life during that time.
Please feel free to use the comment section, if you want to share something as well.
These are paper cranes that I have been making during lockdown.
I make some each year for the commemoration of Hiroshima Day, but during lockdown I decided to get a traditional set of 1000.
I’ve done about 100 so far, and it’s become quite a meditative activity – my hands take over the folding, leaving my mind to process the days’ thoughts, hopes and worries.
Peter
My object is my suitcase, because I did an internship at QCEA before the pandemic reached Europe and travel restrictions happened. Because of Covid-19, I had to leave my internship a little bit earlier and travel during the first day of lockdown in Brussels. It was such a strange day.
Lena
My chosen object is my bicycle helmet. Over Easter the roads where I live were almost completely empty because of lockdown. I`d never been much into cycling before, partly because there are usually a lot of cars going quite fast in my area, but now I couldn`t resist the clear roads.
I cycled once every two days or so for a few weeks, as the traffic came gradually back to normal and I got used to it. The feeling of freedom and exploration was intense. I got to explore the backroads and lanes around my area (outskirts of town, near green fields and a lake), 2 km, and then 5 km, from my house.
I loved speeding down hills, and coming home feeling that, even though it seemed smaller in many ways, I`d made my world subtly bigger.
Susie
When lockdown began, I shifted from making plans and coordinating events in my calender to juggle all my obligations – to taking note and keeping track of what I actually did no matter how minute.
This enabled me to look back on the day and feel good about it and myself. Having a visible and tangible record made me feel less useless and lost. Even though I hadn’t “achieved” much I still had something in my hand to look back on.
Leyna