Last week to the first snow covered the latest public art work at Umeå university most beautifully. This post will focus on Mandana Moghaddan's Vinden bär oss med sig [The wind carry us with it] inaugurated in early November. 

Is it a sculpture or an installation? Well, it is a furnished room without walls, all made of concrete. It reminds of a student's dorm, but it could be just any room with a desk, a chair and an unmade bed. A hotel room, a single room flat, or a refugee accommodation. Occasionally one can hear recorded phone calls. People speaking in different languages of everyday matters or sending their love to family and friends. 

Mandana Moghaddam (http://mandana-moghaddam.com) have made many sculptural installations, the most famous is a well where people in two different places can talk with each other. For Umeå she was also thinking of communication - more specifically - our need to be in touch with our home. It might be that you left for studies and long for some kind words when you are not getting the results you hoped for, or want to celebrate great grades or receiving grants. Or, like too many people right now,  you are forced to leave home for violent, threatening, catastrophic reasons. Moghaddam did this journey herself, and says she has lived in, and left, many rooms like this one. No matter where she was (or still is) the telephone was the life line to the people dear to her. So necessary when wanting to be a part of their lives and make sure everybody are ok.

Another important aspect of this art work is accessibility. We are supposed to enter this room, listen to the voices speaking, and to sit down by the desk where the light is always shining. Today this creature was placed in the room. Hopefully a sign of how quickly people at campus have accepted and started to examine its potential.