Beltane – spring ritual 2022

It is Walpurgis Eve, or Valborg Aften. Next to the pigment garden, between birch trees, two enamel pots stand steaming over a low fire. Resting on a table we find a collection of fabric balls, made from yellow strips of silk. Yellow like daffodils. Somewhat translucent and pale, like the first light green leaves on budding trees. Around the table four artists are dressed in the same shade of yellow, dyed with anthemis and dandelion. The artists hum and each pick up a ball of fabric, letting them unwind. The damp, cool strips are wrapped around tree trunks, while people watching are brought along to draw the strips across, under, and around. We dress the space in a yellow web. Wrapping the trees, and unwrapping them again. The balls of yellow material are returned to the table. Spring presents us with what the fall has withdrawn. We are invited to hold hands. There is still a melodic hum while we walk, hand in hand, as if around a Maypole, and we encircle the pigment garden where flax was recently sewn. When placing our hands on the earth it feels neither damp nor cool but warm from the sun and very soft; alive and tingly. We hold our hands in place, in quiet conversation with the earth.  Around us the dandelions light up like small suns.

The ritual took place on the 30th of march 2022 at Rønnebæksholm Art Center as part of Maria Zahle’s exhibition No Stranger or Lover to Me. Concept and performers Sara Gade, Therese Bülow, Louise Midjord and Olga Stage.