a bird flying by...

...leaving the mess of inconceivable constructions. It looks so easy.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Home is where the heart is

Flower's blooming, morning dew and the beauty seems to say

"Its a pleasure when you treasure all thats new and true and gay"

- Romani, David / Malavasi, Mauro / Garfield, Wayne K.

Fábio Miguel Roque

Always expect...

...the unexpected.
Ulf Fågelhammar

there are many rooms

I should have chosen another door in the hallway - this place is a chamber of horror. So what made me enter the room?
Hanna Lindgren

DAY 03

I'm afraid... I'm afraid they're building a new One...
Cristian Bassa

Fine tuning

The Institute, religion alternation chamber no.241.6173 Fine tuning your religious beliefs since 1987
Sven Basic

Will he come?

ESTRAGON:
If he came yesterday and we weren't here you may be sure he won't come again today.
VLADIMIR:
But you say we were here yesterday.
ESTRAGON:
I may be mistaken. (Pause.) Let's stop talking for a minute, do you mind?
/S. Becket
Jan Bernhardtz

The Neanderthals died out

I have just learned that it was Art and real life social networking that made modern man superior to the Neanderthals and made them disappear. It happened a long, long time ago. The Institute never told me about that. I wonder why? So many questions.
Ulf Fågelhammar

we have many questions

Where have all the flowers gone? Who'll stop the rain? Didn't we almost have it all?  Who let the dogs out? What's new pussycat? Are you a hypnotist? Do you believe in magic? Life on Mars? Where is everybody? Is this the way to Retrograd?
Ulf Fågelhammar

Not enough of sun, wind and water

Sing it all together:
"Workin' in a coal mine
Goin' down down down"
Jan Bernhardtz

Summer is getting shorter...

...in the northern part of The Institute. Daylight is scarce.
Ulf Fågelhammar

I will never understand this...

"You can never be sure if this sweet face is only a mask, or if those sweet, smiling lips could kill with the words. Lies and betrayal as the way of life. It is hard to understand, to those who has a trembling heart and the eyes filled with compassion."
Ksenija Spanec

We are all in this together

Everything in the natural world is connected. An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things that work together. 
Mikael Jansson

everything is connected to everything else

The crisis of the rationalist mechanical materialist position becomes quite clear as the sciences themselves peer deeper into the phenomena of nature.
Jan Bernhardtz

another point of view

Hegel was turning dialectics upside down: "With him it is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again, if you would discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell." K. Marx

The visitor

A visitor from a faraway land. He had sailed all the oceans, climbed the mountains and walked the streets. Was he here to show us that The Institute isn't invincible?
Mikael Jansson

something is happening...

...right in front of your eyes. What are you going to do about it?
Ulf Fågelhammar

no words

"I can't find words any more. They have been stolen from me, as well as my thoughts. Too much noise around here."
Ksenija Spanec

Undercover

Wearing a hat and a trenchcoat is not regarded as suspicious behavior by The Institute as it is the uniform of its undercover agents.

Jan Bernhardtz

Empty the trash bin...

...and permanently delete all files of The Institute.
Mikael Jansson

Growth

To conquer The Institute we have to learn some amazing things - like growing from the sky to the earth.
Ulf Fågelhammar

somewhere

"Sometimes your only wish is to escape, but the only direction allowed, is the sky."
Ksenija Spanec

When they're smiling

When The Institute puts up posters and other more subtile ads with smiling faces it can only mean one thing: The Institute calls for an Election. Deep inside the citizens know that all the smiling faces in one way ore another are representing The Institute. Nevertheless they are accepting the illusion...is it because they're smiling?
Mikael Jansson

Behavior Policy

The Traffic Administration Office is happy to announce two amendments to the Public Behavior Act:
- Citizens may not practice charity in public places.
- Citizens with health problems are no longer allowed to gather in groups of three or more.

Always keep in mind the laws of The Institute - they exist for Your personal safety.
Hanna Lindgren

It so happens

It so happens I’m tired of being a man.
It so happens I enter clothes shops and theaters,
withered, impenetrable, like a swan made of felt
sailing the water of ashes and origins.

Sucede que me canso de mis pies y mis uñas
y mi pelo y mi sombra.
Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.

from Walking around / Pablo Neruda
Ulf Fågelhammar

Overdoing it

It is a good idea to hide your face when there is a surveillance camera nearby. But don't overdo it. It will be regarded as very suspicious behavior. Next stop will be the Retreat.
Jan Bernhardtz

Any discontent will be registered

Please remember that The Institute is capable of monitoring behavior too. So, please pick up the balloon and smile.
Mikael Jansson

Avoiding the CCTV cameras

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Loneliness

Emptiness is a place you're in. Even in Retrograd. Close your eyes. Don't think.
Ksenija Spanec

Brain surgery

Humanitarian organisations sponsored by the Institute are committed to do a brain surgery.
After the operation the patients are sent in a non-desired direction.
Sanja Buterin

When the shark bites

Macheath sings with Jenny: 
"You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy 
But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait!
Or is it only those who have the money 
Can enter in the land of milk and honey?”
Jan Bernhardtz

Zingo

The Institute likes to modernize. A kiosk with a Zingo sign, much loved by many citizens was removed. The Institute promised to rebuild it with the Zingo sign on top. A few months later citizen B. told me that he had found the sign slaughtered and cut to pieces. Never trust The Institute. 
Ulf Fågelhammar

Back in Retrograd

Looking like Yoda the Kindl man said: "You should follow the white mustangs. They will show you what matters in life." "It's a car, It's a car!" I screamed. There was no answer. The Kindl man had left the building.
Mikael Jansson

This guy knows something

This guy said that he actually lives in Retrograd and invited me home for a Kindl. Finally some good news.
Jan Bernhardtz

Retro... who?

Well, these guys had no idea about how to find Retrograd. They were displaced just like me.
Ulf Fågelhammar

a long walk

"After this long walk I will rest, on the bed which I have created and therefore deserved."
Ksenija Spanec

Rainy days

The Institute Van. People who take a walk in the rain are soon picked up and transported back to the Retreat or some other Rehabilitation establishment.
Mikael Jansson

How to avoid face detection

Tracking the changing positions of objects capable of continuous movement is becoming increasingly feasible and necessary, declares The Institute. Our advice is to keep moving in all directions. Continuously. And to get the Invisible Poncho.
Jan Bernhardtz

Que bonito es

[Girl:]
Yo morire y nadie se acordara de mi. Yo morire y nadie se acordara de mi... de mi.
[Man:]
Si, Lisa. Yo me acordare de ti e ire a verte al cementerio con una flor y un perro. Y en tu funeral cantare... en voz baja: Que bonito es un entierro. /Agalloch
Valeriu Catalineanu

Before I go...

...to the valley below.
Mikael Jansson

Road sign

Thank you very much. I could turn left or turn right? This is definitely a trick by The Institute. 
Jan Bernhardtz

trying to find my way

I did not realize how hard it would be just to get back to the Retrograd shed. It seems I am lost between here and nowhere.
Ulf Fågelhammar

speechless

"Like a caged bird, you begin to sing, as it was your last song, or you became speechless. I do not sing."
Ksenija Spanec

The couple

Behind another door there is a man and a woman holding hands. They watch me in silence. I back down to the hallway. Still lost. 
Valeriu Catalineanu

The Control Room

I decide to try another door in the hallway - it looks like a control room with a lot of TV monitors. It's 03:04. I wonder what that is supposed to mean. 
Jan Bernhardtz

another Potemkin wall ?

I can't find my way back to the Retrograd shed. When opening one of the doors in the hallway I find myself in a really scary place.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Passage

The hallway leading to Retrograd.
Jan Bernhardtz

where have all the good times gone ?

There were no good times. There were good times and bad times. Ahead there will be ...
Ulf Fågelhammar

Precaution

If you should wake up in the middle of the night when staying at the Retreat follow this advice: Go to sleep again as fast as you can. Don't be tempted to stay awake - horrible things are happening.
Valeriu Catalineanu

the blindness of faith

"At some point you begin to realize, that what you believed was eternity, was only inability to see that the end was too close already. The blindness of faith."
Ksenija Spanec