︎

The Surrogate (2016). 🌒 The goal was to design a fully-fledged experience with interiors, costumes, background stories and interactive sets for invited guests. We studied the body – both inside and out, organs, carnal visuals and a dystopian parallel universe, while examining materials and their many uses. (plastic sheets, nylon stockings, wallpaper paste, lots of yarn, balloons, nails and an oversized blanket/nest knitted using my arms as needles and cut-up fabric as yarn) 
















You have now entered the limbo between the transcendental universe and the world as you know it. This place was once an ordinary and quiet village. It had a tailor, a tavern, a pharmacy, a church, a gym, an undertaker, a kindergarten and the local doctor. The morning of the 13th of October, the inhabitants felt the earth shake under their feet and saw fast moving shadows coming their way engulfing them in darkness. Most of them were able to flee but unfortunately not everyone made it in time. To avoid being consumed completely by the darkness, the remaining inhabitants made a bargain that in return of their freedom they needed to sacrifice their dearest and most precious possessions to the Source of Darkness. The Surrogate was amongst those who did not make it time. She was the kindergarten teacher and took care of all the children in the village. On the morning of October the 13th, the Source of Darkness made her the surrogate of its offspring. Colder times are coming to the village and The Surrogate Mother will need to knit blankets for the source and its offspring. But she is running out of yarn as it has scattered all over the village during the overtaking from the darkness. Your presence is no coincidence - you’ve been summoned specifically to help the poor souls of this once lost village. Your task is to travel through the village, obtaining new pieces of fabric to tie to the end of the yarn and help The Surrogate Mother finish the blanket in time. The stressful situation, caring for both offspring and the endless job of knitting, has taken its toll on The Surrogate Mother and she will now need help knitting. You will receive a map of the town and a protecting ornament to make sure you won’t end up as its previous inhabitants.


In collaboration with Sarah Blicher Bek
Photography: Emma Enderlein