TS:
Yes, we already talked about the potential of perhaps doing another workshop together. And
we talked about what might have been missing the first time. As a next step, we thought of
focusing more on the question of how all this knowledge and experience can now reach society.
How can we transform this into actions? How can this work influence economic and political
systems?
MB: Speaking about the effect of these topics on the outside world, do you think the
events in Oslo that happened during the workshop influenced the way we understood
compassion and felt as a group during these days?
TS:
For sure those tragic events brought a real life aspect into the workshop. We were talking
about compassion and then all these people were shot and murdered in Oslo and on Utøya. And I
remember that the day after the attack, Joan Halifax was leading the morning meditation focusing
on compassion and dying. She asked us to include not only the victims of the attack but also the
perpetrator in our meditation. This was very powerful. She also talked about the role of
compassion in the dying process and many of us were deeply moved while sitting. And I know that
one post-doc from my group, whose family is from Oslo, was really having a very hard time and
could not understand how cultivating compassion could also mean including a perpetrator, a killer
of lots of his people. How can you ever open your heart to such a person? These moments also
produced friction. You could feel that. It is one thing to talk about universal compassion; it is
another thing to live it in a very real situation – at a moment when your people have been killed.
OE:
Yes – this was a tough moment. Joan also reminded us, not just about Oslo, but about the
drought and hunger crisis in the Sudan – let’s not forget that – and asked us to be able to
encompass all these people. That was really beautiful, being reminded of having to go beyond this
circle of intimate European, Scandinavian, neighborly feelings. It goes for everyone. Another thing
that this meditation – and all the meditations really – highlighted is an important theme for us in the
studio: the feeling of being present. We talk about this a lot with the studio team, about the
consequences of our feeling present, and recently we worked a lot with notions of public space.
What resources do these spaces offer us? What are the values that are used as guidelines to
define public spaces? Who are the people who take on the responsibility of defining space on
behalf of others? Do these decision-makers support qualities in public spaces in such a way that
they actually support the notion of intersubjectivity, of people being together? Surprisingly, we see
a number of public spaces being developed that do not support the idea of sharing space.
TS: Olafur, do you think that this book and the documentary that we are producing
together based on this first workshop could be something that might create ripples and
positive changes?
OE:
I do see the documentary and this book as addressing compassion in a different way by
introducing, in a way, an almost pragmatic approach. It’s clear to me that both art and
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