And the blogging week begins with a nostalgic reminiscence by our beloved Meetings coordinator Katarina Evasdotter Birath, who, after many years of coming up with mind-twisting subject for discussions, collecting moderators and taking the programme to perfection, decided to conclude her role as the Meetings coordinator in 2020.

My first encounter with Supermarket was in 2013. I had just moved back to Stockholm after one year of exchange studies and I had no job, no plans and nothing to do. I don't even remember how I found out about the fair. None of my friends were really interested in art, but somehow I ended up applying to become a volunteer. I don’t think I talked to anyone that first year. I was so shy and so overwhelmed with all of it. I remember being in charge of the fire alarm button. I sat alone in a room with nothing to do but to press that button every 30 minutes to prevent the fire alarm from going off during the performances. But it was something with that weekend that made me come back year after year. Something about the atmosphere being so free and accepting. It was a feeling that anything could happen and I didn'tt want to miss out on a single moment of it. So I grew and I found a place where I got the chance to create something on my own by coordinating the Meetings programme.

During my years as Meetings Coordinator I have experienced dancing rabbits, meetings so heated the participants started shouting and running away, artists rolling around on the floor of the fair, enormous foam rubber animals, tango singing, toilet booth video art and one artist who sculptured himself into a cocoon. One Supermarket opening, an artist painted with flaming oil just above a pile of dry leaves by the entrance – it ended up with me having to step in to extinguish the ensuing fire. The visitors, queuing up outside the entrance, didn’t react much to the accident and perhaps they thought it was all part of the performance.

But what I have loved the most over the years are all the warm hearted, loving, fun, crazy, talented and long-headed people that I have met at the fair. And now, when my time has come to move on to other adventures in life, the things I will miss the most are all those conversations, discussions and chit chats we have together.

Hopefully we will see each other in one way or the other in the future anyway! I don’t think I could stay away from Supermarket completely ;)

Lots of love,

Katarina Evasdotter Birath

Your former Meetings Coordinator

Image: Katarina Evasdotter Birath