Meet last year's participants: Along Projects

Interview with Rikke Bank and Roe Ly from Along Projects

What have you been doing at Kulturhavn? 
We have invited the festival's guests to participate in creating a huge crochet art project with us. You have either been able to learn to make your own yarn from plastic waste that we had brought with you and then crochet with it. Otherwise, we also had fabric yarn keys with us, which are made from textile scraps.

The work is inspired by fishing nets. That was the only rule and otherwise people just had to experiment and play. To that extent, people have done that. There have really been a lot of people.

There were many who had not tried it before. But once they got the technique under their nails, they started experimenting with putting everything possible into what they crocheted. So it started simple but got wilder and wilder. We had collected waste along the west coast in Jutland, which could be used to wrap in the work.

The name Along is about the fact that we want to focus on togetherness. We think art is good for bringing people together. In our workshop, you sit down and immerse yourself in something and work together to create a common third. In this way, you get a sense of community because you have the same purpose. There were all kinds of ages and people were open and sat and chatted.

We have made a book where you can write your name in. So when we exhibit the work, so that everyone who has participated is recognized for their part in the work. Everyone becomes an artist and not just a participant. It will be a work of art. Perhaps we can break with the fact that craftsmanship is a separate thing and visual art is a separate thing. We want it to be both.

The work must be a minimum of 11 by 4 meters in size. It will be exhibited in March 2025 at the town hall in Ringkøbing as part of an exhibition called "As the wind blows."

We are going to Bulgaria this summer and work on the exhibition. We also want to do this workshop, so that we also get some international actors involved. Focus on West Jutland and put it in relation to other places.

How did the idea of ​​using the harbor and Kulturhavn come about? 
We already had the idea to do the project, but when we saw Kulturhavn's Open Call it made so much sense. It fits thematically very well with turning waste into yarn, crocheting fishing nets in blue ocean colors and that it should end up in Ringkøbing on the West coast.

Doing it with a lot of people is the coolest way to do it. We wouldn't be able to do it ourselves - at least it would cost us our wrists, I think.