February 2025, Leipzig

Fabienne keeps asking me if I’ll come see the group performance they're taking part in. It’s about to begin two floors down, I’m running around at my university, preparing my contributions for this year’s student’s exhibition that’s coming up in a few days. “So will you come down and see the performance?”, Fabienne texts me again while I’m occupied by the installation of my video work upstairs. “Will you?”, another indirectly demanding message. Ugh, I’m stressed out and I don’t feel like I have the time, nor the desire for that matter, to go spend an hour of my life looking at someone else’s work, much less a work I’ve already lost my interest in a long time ago. But Fabienne is my friend and they’ve been heavily engaged with a group of performance-art students all winter, creating the piece that’s about to go live downstairs. I’ve been following the process through Fabienne, they’ve been telling me about the collaboration and the different aspects of it. It’s all been giving me recurring, allergic reactions; Something about breaking with power dynamics and binary systems, something about how everyone involved can possibly feel “comfortable” and “safe” around each other at all times, something about equality, feminism and awareness. What a bore. To me it all sounds like an all-inclusive buffet of our bubble’s most trendy way of understanding the world: As a household account of power relations. I feel like I’ve seen the performance before I’ve seen it: A consensus-driven group of art students who think the same, talk the same, walk the same, who have been training for months to hold an audience hostage under their social control regime disguised as a progressive artwork. 

I press play on the screen I’ve just installed on the wall in front of me. My Baby begins to speak to me. “Here’s my bleeding heart, look at it”, she says in words made of glass shards, while blurry photos of my own naked body dances on a soaked, red mattress. Uff, is this too intimate to show to the entire academy? I might as well strip down and walk around the building crying and menstruating for the next three days. My phone buzzes in my pocket, what now, I fetch it out, Fabienne: “Girl, the performance starts soon, come down!”, “Coming”, I text back and press pause on my video. As I walk away from my Baby, thoughts swim around inside my head, blowing softly towards my hard edges:

“I am not entitled to judge something or someone. 

The right to judge is not earned until you’ve gotten to know what you think you know.

Do your research on whatever you think you already understand. 

Do the work.

See and think for yourself. 

Never judge in vain.

Judge in enlightenment.” 

The voice of a stranger joins my inner choir of self-optimisation: 

“If you’re so aware of your own assumptions, why not drop them?”

- I recall Mephisto from the PASTINAK collective saying in my very favourite movie of theirs. Yes, that’s exactly it: I am so very aware of my own assumptions regarding the performance I’m about to witness, that I by all means have to drop them for a minute to enable myself to see the world differently.

I walk down the empty staircase. The sound of my heels echoes between the cold walls, along with these phrases I keep whispering to myself: 

“The more vulnerable I dare to make myself through my work,

the deeper it will reach. 

Remember to keep a flexible mind. 

The more vulnerable I dare to make myself through my work,

the deeper it will reach. 

Remember to keep a flexible mind. 

The more vulnerable I dare to make myself through my work,

the deeper it will reach. 

Remember to keep a flexible mind.”

The sound of my heels stomping on the steps and my repetition of the phrases begin to shape a rhythm together. I fetch my phone to record this new soundscape emerging from my determined steps and encouraging mantra. 

I’m the only one on the staircase. I always feel like I’m the only person in the entire building whenever I’m here to do whatever I went here to do. The Academy of Fine Arts is, on a regular day, always bafflingly empty. The university is relatively small, only about 550 students enrolled as we speak. But still the empty horizon that yawns back at me no matter where I am in the building always makes me wonder. Even when I do stumble across another human being, the awkward silence between us reinforces the feeling of moving through a ghost town. Though one can always count on the walls to bear witness of a lively, edgy student’s body; graffiti tags with popular political messages, posters of current, upcoming and past exhibitions around the city, stickers with hip contemporary statements. All of which represents the consensual convictions that shape the mainstream of this hub of youngsters: Pro-Palestine, queer-feminism, FLINTA*-celebrations, ANTIFA, ACAB, something critical about the patriarchy, etc.. 

I get to the first floor of the building where I’m met by a big group of people, gathered in front of the room in which the performance is about to go live. The crowd is chatty and apparently consisting of both the performers and the audience, which makes sense, could be an anti-hierarchal statement, seems the performance has already begun. I take in my own waiting-for-the-show-to-begin-and-pretending-to-chill-until-then-position: Pseudo-casually leaning against the wall, while pseudo-observing my surroundings, when in fact what I really want to be observing is myself. I catch glimpses of the commission among the crowd. The commission is a part of the audience too, as this is a graduation show. It’s members are as always easy to spot among the eclectic art students, because of their low-key, slick, monolithic, quiet luxury uniforms and large, intact iPhones hanging around their necks in thick, colourful strings. I spot Fabienne running around talking to people. They’re brimming with their mesmerising charisma, skilfully luring anyone they speak to into thinking they’re flowers and Fabienne is the sun shining on them. Like the rest of the performers Fabienne is wearing a costume that looks like a zombie-formalist painting wrapped cleverly around their body. I like this costuming, an interesting start to whatever’s about to happen. I begin to think I might be positively surprised today. Do I sense the possibility of a subversion of my own beliefs ahead? Here? Really? How orgastically refreshing that would be.

I’m beginning to feel too self aware standing around alone in this swarm. Should I take out my phone and replace my solitude with digital delimitation? My irritation with Fabienne is increasing as they’re apparently too busy recruiting new fans to take a moment to come give their old one a sign of appreciation that she’s here. But that’s the thing about Fabienne: As eccentric, exciting and charismatic they can be, as self-obsessed, self-involved and narcissistic they can be too. I’m a tired pendulum in our relationship, eternally swinging back and forth between loving them deeply for who they are, the next minute feeling like I’m nothing but an addition to the praising audience they need to gather around them to be able to fulfil their own self image. 

Could this be an 1:1 description of myself as well?

I spot Connie Cox in the crowd, she’s as always looking awake and ready, her sparkling brain tuning into a moment of filtering her experience through her multidimensional inner prism. 

I’d like our minds to synchronise during the performance. 

The doors open and everyone’s sucked inside of the room. I feel like a fish in a stream, unwillingly being pulled into someone else’s world. The room is big and bright. There’s about 15 performers, all immediately beginning to walk around the room in different tempi, swinging their arms and turning their heads towards the ceiling in what I guess is supposed to look like dreamy movements. The audience, myself included, go to sit and stand up against the walls of the space. A circle of spectators, all about to witness the fruits of this group of art student’s hard work. 

What I’m witnessing during the course of the next 45 very long minutes can be summarised into this: A group of people running around in a room, rolling around on the floor, holding hands, making oral noises here and there, forming a human pyramid, whereafter they end up lying on the floor in a kind of cuddle puddle. I glance over towards the door of the room several times during the show, but it’s too far away. I should have deliberately placed myself right next to it so I could have exited after the first five minutes. But too late. I’m trapped and being forced to look at nothing for something that feels like eternity. In the end everyone claps, including myself, without being sure what I’m actually clapping at. The costumes? That it’s finally over? I notice Connie Cox clapping as well, the look on her face is hard to interpret because of it’s lack of emotion. The main initiator of the performance, the graduating student, goes to stand at the end of the room and pulls a piece of paper out of their shirt. They begin their speech by announcing that they will be speaking in English so that everyone feels included. Yes, yes, we get it. Not only did I have to watch you and your tribe roll around on the floor for 45 minutes, now my intellect has also been insulted. 

I’m now considering sticking around for the discussion round at the end. I have all of these thoughts, so much I could say about what I’ve just witnessed that I’m beginning to think the performance, however boring I found it, in it’s meaninglessness did inspire critical thinking in me. This is interesting, but credit goes to the discrepancy between my own idea of a good artwork, and the graduating student’s idea of collectivity and collaboration. I’m already getting nervous even thinking about speaking my mind in this room. Could I express my criticism here without being collectively condemned for it? Would it be accepted as a sincere contribution to a possibly vivid discussion about this work, or rather viewed as a polemic criticism of something that’s in it’s essence so well-meaning that any kind of criticism towards it will be perceived as evilry? How safe is this safe space they’ve been working on creating together, and to whom exactly?

I think about B and how he’s always brutally honest about what he thinks, in any given moment. He establishes his self confidence on his own ability to speak up and speak his mind, whereas I’m still wading around the sump of also wanting people to feel good in my company. At the same time, I deeply despise self-censorship. It’s something I feel way too often inside this institution: The self-censorship. It strangles me to the point of devastation over my own inability to fight it. And in this moment, in this room, amongst these people, I’m feeling it again, heavily muting my potentially roaring voice. 

I decide to sneak out of the room, finally. I try not to make too much noise with my heels as I slowly but securely move towards the door. It would be generous of me to contribute with my thoughts to the discussion round, but I don’t have the confidence to speak my mind in such a large group of moralists. It would be interesting for me to know what other audience members might have to say, but I don’t have the patience, nor the optimism, to stick around for another possible round of numbing conformity. 

Later at home, I’m sitting in bed with a huge bowl of cinnamon cereal, about to put on my favourite PASTINAK movie, when Fabienne calls me. “Are you still around?”, they ask, “No, I went home. How do you feel? Satisfied with the performance?”, I ask this sincerely wanting to check in if they’re coming down softly post self-objectification. “I don’t know yet, but I’m very curious to know what you think about it?”, Fabienne asks me. I take a deep breath. “Do you really want to know? I won’t sugar coat it for you”, “Eh, yes... give it to me!”, Fabienne says in a not very convincing tone. “Alright. I think that performance is a solid proof that a collective devoid of individualism is an artwork devoid of meaning. The work was successful of one thing: boring itself, which is ironically interesting. The costuming was good though. The result seems to be luke-warm discourse wrapped in a deceptively cool aesthetic”, I reflect. “What? How can you just tell me that like that?”, Fabienne says in a sudden, high-pitched voice. “You asked me what I think, and I’m telling you”, I say, as my heart begins to beat faster. “But it’s just not very supportive”, Fabienne says, “Honest criticism is also a way of supporting you”, I say. I feel the blood raising to my head and I’m trying to keep the decibel of my voice on a low. “Next time you can be a bit more sensible”, Fabienne says, and I roll my eyes.”I did, I only told you the tip of the iceberg of what I think of that intellectually lazy lump of nothingness.” Fabienne hangs up. 

Silence in my room. Noise in my mind. The blood is pumping through my veins, a thousand contradicting feelings gnawing away at my insides. As much as I like to be confrontationally honest, as much I feel utterly discomforted by personal conflicts. I look at my now soggy bowl of cinnamon cereal standing next to me on my bed table. I grab it and the spoon with shaking hands, stuff my mouth and chew. My laptop is sitting in front of me on the bed, on the screen a frozen image of Mephisto who’s in the middle of saying something interesting about a painting him and the PASTINAK collective are discussing in the movie. I close my laptop. Enough discourse for today. I slurp the cinnamon milk greedily. 

I put on my headphones. A few days ago, my friend Lorenz had sent me an album he thought I should listen to. “Take a moment and listen to this non-effect driven art. It’s not cool. It's perfect.”, he’d written. I open the link, and some kind of Renaissance choir immediately begins to speak to me. The sound of multiple independent voices singing each their own melody, beautifully interweaving into a vocal polyphony. It soothes my infected brain. I turn up the volume. I smile. 

It is happening again, 2026, digitised 35 mm negative, digital collage.

March 2025, Leipzig & Berlin

I get out of bed in the afternoon. Around 3 o’clock in the night I’d decided to turn off my alarm and thus my plan of getting a full day of work done in the studio today. I was all happy and lusty and slippery in my curly sheets, soaked in pleasure, wanting more, penetrate me until I dissolve in satisfaction! Of course there was a Him and he was there, making me forget about anything I ever wanted, cause now it was and would be only Him, at least for the rest of the night and possibly also for a few weeks ahead. He’s lean and tender, big, cautious eyes, sensitive antennas poking out of every pore of his furry skin. He’d loved me with every inch of his hopeful devotion, I’d loved him with every spark of my performative vulnerability. 

I put on my bathrobe and turn on my speaker. “There’s this album I’m currently listening to in an eternal loop, no matter where I am or what I’m doing”, I tell Him, who’s still lying in my bed, watching me with soft eyes from underneath the duvet as I move around my room. I connect my phone to the speaker and press play. “The artist created this album all isolated and heartbroken in a cabin somewhere in Wisconsin”, I tell Him while the first fragile, rusty tones fill the air between us. “He’d moved into the cabin after his girlfriend left him and left him in pieces. Around the same time his band fell apart and then so did he. He decided he had to get away from everything, maybe most of all from his own defeated self, don’t you think?”. Him nods his head. He’s looking up at my ceiling, listening to my words and the music. “I think I’m in love with this album and it’s story because I’ve been so lovesick myself this winter”, I say, as I start going through my wardrobe to find out what to wear. “But then I made a beautiful little artwork out of my misery and now I feel so happy again!”, I say and pull out a pastel green tank top with sequins on the front. “Do you think I should wear this today? My sister Katia gave it to me, I’ll see her later, maybe she’ll be delighted to see me wear it”, I yap on while unwrapping my bathrobe and letting it fall to the floor. “It’s a nice top”, Him says, looking at me, head floating on the pillow. I put on the top and a beige miniskirt, wiggle around in front of my mirror in a little dance while the third song of the album starts playing. “This song is called Skinny Love and it’s my favourite one of the entire album”, I tell Him and put on a pair of green pantyhose. I catch the eyes of Him in the mirror, then turn around and look at him directly. “What’s going on inside that dreamy head of yours?”, I ask, smiling still, but I’m beginning to feel too self conscious bathed in his wilful gaze. “You just.. look so pretty”, Him says and I decide to put on red pantyhose and a short denim skirt instead.   

A few hours later, I’m awaiting my sisters in my studio. I’ve invited them to come over for sparkling wine and a chat. I light candles everywhere and put on my new favourite album again. I dance around in front of a mirror while recording myself with my phone. I edit a little video and post it in my Insta story, caption “while waiting for my savage sisters”. They all arrive at the same time: Sister Katia, Sister Penelope, Sister Rakel, Sister Fleur, Sister Vic and Sister Juno. “I’m in love with Him!”, I declare to them, as I pour the cheap wine into old mustard glasses, “Let’s celebrate!”, and we all cheers. The night goes on. We smoke and drink, talk about boys who made us come and men who made us cry. Sister Vic is sad cause her man doesn’t love her like she wants him to. Sister Penelope is nauseous from too much love-making with different beautiful boys. Sister Rakel is angry at some Italian boy who didn’t keep his promises. Sister Juno has cut her hair short and is transitioning into becoming a political lesbian. Sister Katia is bored by her German man’s eternal devotion to her. She wants to run off into the forests and perform occult rituals to reestablish contact to her autonomous spirit. And Sister Fleur is as always observant and clarified cause she’s too smart to create any kind of drama in her stable relationship with the fantastic man she's chosen to live her life with. 

“I’m afraid of B”, I tell the group, “After the whole Baby-drama, he thinks I want to love him again. He keeps texting me, it’s creeping me out!”, “Well, you did make a movie in which you tell him you want to give birth to his baby, then exhibit it to the entire university”, Sister Juno intervenes, “I can understand his confusion”, she adds, and we all giggle. 

Once a year, there’s a big student’s exhibition at The Academy of Fine Arts, where most of the sisters and myself all study. This year, I exhibited a movie called Baby. It’s a visual diary showing photos taken during the course of B’s and mine relationship. I’m narrating over the intimate moments on display, reading out loud a letter in which I confess to B that I want to become a mother and that I want his DNA for my child. It’s a letter I wrote him after we split up for the 100th time. He’d poisoned my spirit and I was left insane again, obsessively writing one letter after the other, never sent a single one of them to him. Though the one about my desire to procreate with him made it to The Academy of Fine Arts. During the exhibition, I managed to create quite the attention around my work, and many people watched it. Including B. “I think he’s only texting you again now, cause he wants to know whether you're still in his possession”, Sister Fleur reflects and I feel a cold chill testing my newly re-established self confidence. Everyone nods. “I’d just block him if I were you”, Sister Juno advices and lights up a cigarette, “Totally, he’s so weird”, Sister Rakel confirms and I feel an urge to change the subject soon. “Ok hold the fuck on, who is this guy, I need to know what he looks like right now” Sister Katia says, whom I’ve only recently gotten to know and has therefor been spared the B-misery that has occupied my life for the past 1,5 years. Sister Katia has seen my Baby movie too, in fact it was what connected us in the first place, but on each photo in which B appears, I’ve censored him with cut-outs of a big, yellow bear. “You don’t know who he is?”, Sister Vic wonders, “I thought everyone at our university knows B”. I take out my phone and show Sister Katia a photo of B and I lying in bed together. It’s a selfie I took of the two of us with my disposable camera last summer when I was so in love with him. “What, this guy!”, Sister Katia bursts out by the sight of B’s face close to mine, “He’s that guy in my seminar who everyone hates!”, we all break out in laughter, “Yep, that’s the love of my life so far”, I say and raise my glass.

I get a notification on Instagram. It’s my new artist-acquaintance, Sinon reacting to my story: “Dude, you should be in Berlin with me!”, he writes, “I’ll be there in a few days!”, I answer, cause I will. Sinon and I have been following each other for a while on Instagram. He’s connected to an artist collective in Amsterdam whom I find very interesting. A few days ago, Sinon and I ended up chatting for a bit. We’d each reacted to each other’s stories which turned into a chat about art and love, which turned into a plan for me to visit him in Berlin for a few days. “I love your work,  let’s do something together!”, Sinon had messaged me, and I was instantly flattered and intrigued. “I’d love to! You’re a part of Horror House, right?”, I’d replied, “I work with them, yes”, “Cool, I’m a big fan of Mephisto!”, I’d texted, “Mephisto says I’m the only one who understands him”, Sinon had replied, and I booked a Flixtrain to Berlin a week ahead. 

I look around my group of girlfriends sitting around yapping away with their haircuts, their smokes and their drinks. Should I tell them about my plan for the next days? No, it won’t fly, they’d never just support me in my next possibly self-destructive endeavour of going to stay with a strange man in Berlin for three days. I’ll tell them when I’m back in Leipzig again and they see I’m still smiling.

Around 2 o’ clock in the night, I find myself freezing outside, waiting for a tram that never comes. I take a photo of myself in the reflection of a store front window and send it to Him. “Seems I’ll be walking home tonight, thank God I’m drunk”, I text him. He instantly answers, “Where are you?”, “Angerbrücke”, I write. “It’s close to mine, do you want to come over?”. 

The next day I wake up in Him’s affection. We spend the day like that, intertwined, having coffee, hugs, kisses. “I want to rip open your skin and drink your blood”, I tell him on a chair in his kitchen, “I’m so into you I might let you”, he tells me and carries me to his bed. Towards the late afternoon he breaks the spell cause duty calls. “I gotta prepare a presentation for work tomorrow”, he says, “I should get going too, I gotta pack a bag for my trip to Berlin tomorrow”, I say and get out of bed to collect my clothes that have been spread out all over his dusty room. Him gets up and moves to the end of his bed. “Really? What will you be doing there?”, he asks and takes my hand as I move by him. He pulls me to his lap and I wrap my legs around his waist. “I’m gonna go meet this artist I’ve been getting in contact with recently. Maybe we’re gonna create something beautiful together”, I tell Him and kiss his eyes. “That sounds exciting, who’s the artist?”, Him whispers, his arms wrapped tightly around my body. “Hold on, I’m gonna try and get dressed without having to move away from you”, I say and lean down towards the floor to pick up my bra. Him holds me so I don’t fall. “His name is Sinon”, I begin telling Him, kissing his face in between words. “He’s connected with this artist I really admire, Mephisto. Him and his artist collective are based in Amsterdam, they’re called Horror House. I honestly don’t know much else about Sinon.” I hook my bra behind my back while I move the tip of my tongue around the surface of Him’s warm lips. “When will you be back?”, he asks into my mouth with his eyes closed. I let my nose wander up the side of his neck until my mouth is at his ear. “In a few days. And then I’m coming straight back to you”. 

About 36 hours later, I’m brutally pulled out of a deep sleep by the sudden sound of a voice yelling “Ronja, wake up and listen to my favourite song!”, along with a strange, crackling noise coming from somewhere. I open my eyes and see the blurry shape of a man sitting next to me with a laptop in front of him. I raise my head and look around me, confused, my sight sharpens and I understand the crackling noises of some kind of music are coming from the laptop. The light from the screen is the only light in the room. It falls on the man’s face and chest, he’s sitting with his back hunched, a beer in his hand, his eyes are closed, he moves his head to the rhythm of the music, his face squinted in some kind of melancholic expression. “I love this music so much”, he says and slurps his beer. I look up and down this silhouette: Thin arms, beer belly, thick, black hair on his head. He’s wearing a t-shirt with the motive of something that looks like an octopus coming out of a building. Am I dreaming? I look down my own body. I’m lying on the messy bed the man is sitting on, apparently still wearing all of my clothes, including my boots, my head hurts and I feel dizzy. “What the hell is going on, Sinon?”, I say in a rusty voice, my mouth dry as a desert. “You were drunk and passed out on my bed”, Sinon says, still moving along to the music, he begins humming along to the lyrics. “Then what are you waking me up for?”, I ask, irritated, and sit up to take off my boots. “I wanted to sit here in my bedroom and drink and enjoy this music with you”, Sinon says, “I called Mephisto while you were asleep, we were talking for an hour and I tried waking you up, impossible”, he says and shakes his head, then abruptly gets off the bed and disappears out of the room. Ah, Mephisto.. Something is beginning to dawn on me, Horror House, Mephisto, Sinon, the octopus coming out of the White House is one of Horror House’s graphics, I know that motive. I push the laptop to the side so I can see the bottom right corner of the screen. Time says it's 04.13 AM. Sinon appears in the door of the bedroom with his phone and another beer in his hands, “Great, you’re up! Let’s call Mephisto again, he wants to talk to you!”, Sinon says very loudly and comes to the bed while scrolling on his phone. “No fuck that, I’m not talking to anyone right now, I want to sleep”, I say and close the laptop. My head is spinning and I want to find my bag so I can change to my pyjamas. Sinon jumps onto the bed and opens up the laptop again. “Don’t you EVER interrupt the great Mohsen Namjoo!”, he says and presses play. The music persistently penetrates my throbbing headache and I swing my legs over the edge of the bed to sit up straight. “Ugh for fuck sake Sinon, can’t you go somewhere else in your apartment and listen to that?”, I suggest, and Sinon opens up his new beer. “No, you can go to the living room and sleep on the couch, I want to be in my bedroom now”, he says and turns up the volume on his laptop. “Fine”, I say and get up to go locate that living room in this stranger’s place. As I move through a dark hallway, my blurry memory begins to recollect moments of the day and evening behind me: Taking the train to Berlin all excited, Sinon picking me up at the station in Neukölln, him taking me to a bar, us ordering one drink after the other, sitting at the counter making out and taking tequila shots. I don’t remember at all how we got to his apartment though, and I also don’t remember crashing on his bed. Where am I right now? And also, where the hell is my bag? I locate a doorway to another dark room. Street lights coming through the windows of the room help me navigate this maze I’m trapped in. I can still hear the music and Sinon’s drunk singing voice coming from his bedroom. I find a lamp and switch it on. I look around the room: A couch, a blanket, a pillow AND my bag, fuck yes! I go through my stuff, seems everything’s still there, miraculously. I pull out my pyjamas, take off my party-infected clothes and throw them on the floor. Before I go lie on the couch, I check my phone. A message from Him; “Hope you’re having a good time”, sent a few hours ago. Did I have a good time? I close the door to the living room and snug myself back into wasted dreams. 

I’m abruptly being disturbed in my sleep again as I feel hands on my body and something wet on my belly. I immediately raise my head from the pillow and see Sinon sitting next to me on the couch, hunched over me, he’s got his hands on my waist and he’s pushing his face against my belly, obsessively kissing my skin, “What the fuck are you doing you freak, get your hands off of me and get the fuck out of here!”, I yell and push Sinon away. He stumbles to the floor, looking drunk and stupid and confused. After a few failed attempts to get up on his feet, he finally manages to move towards the door. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry”, he says and disappears into the hallway. I get up, “Do NOT come in here again!”, I yell and slam the door behind him. I shake my heavy head and go back to the couch. The last thought passing through my mind before I fall asleep again is “Shouldn’t this be my cue to leave and never come back here again?” 

The next day I wake up to the sound of a radio coming from somewhere, a cold sun is beaming through the windows. Yesterday’s decisions have now turned into a cloudy hangover wrapping itself around my mind and body in a tired embrace. I slowly roll off the couch and look around. The room is messy, full of half-finished paintings, all saying “SINON” on the front, seems like he hasn’t cleaned in here in a while. I open the door to the living room. The sound of the radio leads me to a small kitchen where I find Sinon sitting at the kitchen table with his back turned against me, seemingly cutting something in front of him, humming along to some pop-hit coming from a small, old-school radio standing next to him. Has he been awake all night? I take a few steps towards him and slap him hard on the back of his head. He shivers and turns around and looks up at me, shocked. “Oh, good morning cookie, how did you sleep?”, he smiles at me, red eyes, tired face, slices of bacon and a few dates are lying on a cutting board in front of him. “Don’t “cookie” me you lunatic! That was really fucking uncool how you acted last night”, I say, “Do NOT overstep my boundaries like that again”, “Yes I’m sorry, won’t happen again, I promise. Do you want some coffee?”, Sinon asks and fetches me a cup from the shelf behind him. I sit down on the other chair next to Sinon and nod my tired head, “Yes please”. I notice his phone sitting on the table in front of us. I smile, and let my fingers walk towards it in slow spider-steps. Sinon follows with his gaze. I pick up the phone and look at him. He’s pouring me a cup. “Milk?”, he asks. “Yes. Sinon?”, I say, and he turns his head to look at me directly. I wave his phone at him. “Can we call Mephisto now?”

April 2025, Leipzig

“So you actually don’t even find Horror House that interesting yourself?”, Connie Cox asks me. We’re sitting at her desk in her big, bright office at the Academy of Fine Arts. On her iPad in front of her, Connie Cox is looking at Horror House’s Youtube channel with much concentration while inhaling her vape. I feel a bit busted. I honestly don’t know Horror House’s artwork very well, cause it seems there’s not much of it, at least not online. I just know there’s something alluring about them, especially Mephisto. He’s been this character I’ve been equally fascinated and frightened by since I discovered him several years ago. Him and his previous art collective, PASTINAK produced a series of great films which I really enjoyed watching during my diploma studies. The movies are documenting the involved artist’s real interactions with each other and with the art world. The PASTINAK-gang would go to art fairs and exhibitions, talk about the artworks on display, the artists behind, criticise curators and art historians for being woke-opportunists and call out nonsensical discourses embedded in activism disguised as artworks. I often took notes when Mephisto was speaking on camera. There seemed to be a completely unfiltered, direct connection between his thoughts and his words, between his mind and his expression. He spoke with such raw immediacy, yet what he said seemed so very eloquent and complex. The movies he made with PASTINAK were a huge inspiration to me, in terms of how I myself perceive and look at art. I’d love to be able to think and speak about art the way the PASTINAK-gang did it. But then, a couple of years ago, Mephisto and the other members of PASTINAK had a fallout, which ultimately led Mephisto to drop out and establish his own art collective with his girlfriend Beth: Horror House. Of course I was more than curious to see what Mephisto would do outside of PASTINAK. Based on the social media of Horror House, it mostly just looked like a lot of action and a lot of fun. And God am I starving for action and fun in the art bubble of Leipzig.

At the Academy of Fine Arts, there is a gallery space. It’s a spacious, clean, beautiful white cube situated in the middle of the university building. Connie Cox is the curator of this gallery. I’d inquired a meeting with her, because I want to use the gallery for a very specific purpose: I’ve invited Horror House to come do an exhibition with myself and other artists whose work I think could be pushing the boundaries of what is considered to be politically correct in the Leipzig art scene. Horror House and I have titled this exhibition The Unsafe Event. The gallery at the Academy of Fine Arts is the perfect place for The Unsafe Event, because this particular space represents the very frame our exhibition wants to break, in every aspect of it’s existence. Releasing Horror House and other misfits inside this palace of German-Academic order and morality would just be the most explosive combination ever.

While Connie Cox is still scrolling through Horror House’s YouTube content, I take the chance to explain to her my project: “The Unsafe Event is a part of an ongoing, artistic investigation I’ve begun working on. This artistic investigation is called The Project. I’m turning my life into an artwork in the sense that everything that happens in my life has the potential to be material for the artwork, for The Project. In this way, I’m also provoking situations and interactions for the purpose of the plot. It is life as a constant performance, in which dramaturgy overrules authenticity. I’m so excited and happy these days, Connie. Everything has turned interesting, cause everything is suddenly art”. Connie Cox raises her head from her iPad and looks at me. She inhales her vape slowly, our eyes locked, “And so Horror House functions as a kind of character within The Project, the gallery of this academy the setting for a specific scene?”, she asks, “Right”, I nod. Connie Cox is a tough audience, her mind filled with knowledge and abstractions, but I’m trying to not let this intimidate me. I take a deep breath and continue to speak my mind: “I think art is supposed to create interactions and dialogue across borders of diversity. That be diversity of political opinions, for example. I’m saddened by the general consensus around the discourse that everything is per default political. Cause I think that art is the one place that should be able to be apolitical. And I think the political climate here at our academy is extremely strong, to such an extent that it’s actually oppressive to the young artist’s minds of this environment. The Unsafe Event is an attempt to shed lights on and break with this issue in a playful, artistic way”. Now looking down at her iPad again, Connie Cox nods her head slowly. “And what are they doing here?”, she asks me and points to a video on her screen. I look down and see Mephisto, Beth and other members of Horror House standing around wearing uniforms, stomping on the ground while performing a gesture with their arms that can very well be interpreted as the Hitler salute. Fuck. “I don’t know, I guess it’s supposed to be some kind of performance,” I say, “but look, I’ll be the curator of the show and I think it could be really interesting to add Horror House to it. I know the main initiator, Mephisto, from previous works of his, and I think he’s an interesting character. Certainly different than anything this school has seen before. I still don’t know what they would do, Mephisto and his group, but that’s the whole concept behind the show, The Unsafe Event: No one knows what will happen. It might sound dangerous, and “unsafe”, but it’s actually not, cause it’s only art. That’s the point”. Connie Cox looks at me, a serious, yet open gaze meets mine. “Who else did you invite to participate in the event?”, she asks. This should be interesting. “So far, the participant’s list include Normal Slavic Girl, Quirky Cool Boy, B and Theis Tooty. Still more to come”, I tell Connie Cox and pour myself a glass of sparkling water. “Normal Slavic Girl and Quirky Cool Boy, okay, but..”, she says, reaches out in front of her and picks up a post-it and a pen from her desk. She scribbles down “B” and “Theis Tooty”, puts down her pen and looks at me. She dabs her one pointing finger on the note a few times while looking at me. I smile. I knew these two specific characters would be trouble. All of the artists I’ve mentioned are students of the Academy of Fine Arts. Theis Tooty is well known for getting brutally cancelled back in 2023, after he got called out on an Instagram page called Your Friends Are Evil (Throw Them Out) for having liked several woke-critical memes. The other person the curator has scribbled down on her post-it is my ex-boyfriend B. B is highly unpopular at our university because he’s openly pro-Israel, conservative, and is not afraid to speak up about it, which is all in all not comme-il-faut within this environment. 

Connie Cox inhales her vape and looks at me. “Theis Tooty hurt a lot of people with his meme-liking and never apologised for it. Thus it’s his own fault that he was never able to redeem himself”, she says in a matter-of-fact tone. “I think what’s been missing from this whole scandal is a dissection and research on the memes in question. I’ve been speaking to many people about this case, most of which are condemning Theis for being satan himself, though when asked about the memes he liked, it turns out most people didn’t even look at them. Theis Tooty’s case is representing gossip-culture at it’s worst. Shouldn’t we be investigating what started it all, those memes, before we condemn Theis Tooty for being in the wrong, to say the least?”, I suggest. “Those memes are hostile towards queer people”, Connie Cox states. I go quiet. I’ve been having this discussion one too many times before, and though I never shy away from sharing my opinion on the issue in question, it always makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. It’s hard to argue against such high moral standards. At best, it can make you look nonchalant. At worst it can make you look queer-hostile, ignorant and obnoxious. “My very best friend is queer”, Connie Cox tells me, puts a new filter tip into her vape and inhales. “I’ve known this person since we were children, so I’ve been first row audience to their development and their deep identity-struggles”. Something in the air intensifies and I feel a new sense of interconnectedness with the clarified woman sitting across from me. “Queer history has a development of 70 years, where queer people have been fighting for their right to exist. And now we’re at a point where, in some societies like ours, there has been created these safe spaces where queer people can exist, nurture and protect their communities together. These spaces are sacred. And these spaces must be protected. Because they’re crucial in order for queer people to survive, basically”. I nod my head silently. Something inside of me shifts and I feel a sensation of empathy warming my body. Still looking at me, Connie Cox dabs her finger on the post-it again. “And B”, she begins, “that’s a bit of a different story. His behaviour and outspokenness about his extremely questionable opinions indeed make him problematic. I’ve heard him say deeply racist things, such as calling the students of Arab ethnicity “lazy and useless””. I shiver. “Was that really racist, though?”, I ask carefully, and a baffled shadow falls on Connie Cox’ otherwise cool, calm and collected face, “Eh, yes, excuse me, but were you even listening?”, she asks. I remember the moment Connie Cox is referring to. And I was listening. It happened at a General Assembly about a month ago. It’s a meeting in which students and staff enter into dialogue about certain issues concerning our university, or at least that’s the idea. At the specific Assembly Connie Cox is referring to, the subject was a pro-Palestine activist group that occupied the centre of the university building for a few months after the 7th of October 2023, and it’s following administrative cancelation. I was sure B would be at that assembly, and I was sure he’d say something outrageous that would freak everyone out. At the time, I hadn’t spoken to him in a while. But it was right at the beginning of The Project, and I was on the lookout for potential allies of stirring things up at the Academy. “I think B might be mentally distorted though, and that’s what makes him such a difficult person”, Connie Cox reflects. “That’s true. I know B very well. We have a history”, I tell her. The baffled shadow reaches a point of totality, “Wow, really? That’s new to me”, she says, and I smile. After two years of a rather dramatic on-and-of relationship with B, it still amuses me to see the reactions of people who know of both B and I, and therefor just cannot fathom the connection between the two of us at all. Connie Cox looks through the window of her office. A few sunbeams dances on her thick, shiny hair. She turns her head and looks at me again, the calm look has returned to her gaze. “Here’s the thing: If you work with B and Theis Tooty, you will be creating problems for yourself”, she says in a serious, yet non-judgemental tone. “But here’s also the thing”, I begin, "both Theis Tooty and B already have good ideas for artworks they want to create for The Unsafe Event. That’s what counts”, I say, “I don’t care what they might have said in the past, or which memes they might have liked two years ago and whether they’ve apologised for whatever might have made someone feel uncomfortable. I don’t like this cancel-madness. I want to break with it, not reenforce it. So as long as people have good ideas and are agreeing with the programme I’ve set, they can participate. Neither B nor Theis are actual predators or criminals. They’re just two dudes who happen to have stepped out of line, somehow. I don’t want to condemn them for their actions, cause I don’t think they truly deserve that. And on top of that, both of them have already been punished for their actions. And in regards to what B said at the General Assembly last time, I agree that his tone was way too harsh and that his attitude can be extremely off-putting sometimes. But I don’t think what he was saying was pointed directly at the students of Arab ethnicity. I think he meant what he said more generally”. 

“You can say that. But you can’t deny that both B and Theis Tooty represent people who are very stubborn and unable to think critically about themselves”, Connie Cox says, “And if you’re not able to represent the other side of this spectrum, call it “the woke side”, as a part of The Unsafe Event, cause they don’t want to take part alongside Theis Tooty and B, then you have a problem with your vision. Then you’re not succeeding in what it is you want to do. If you invite Theis Tooty and B to take part in The Unsafe Event, you are in fact creating a space that will be very, very unsafe for queer people and other minorities. You can’t just unsee the fact that some of the people whom you’ve invited have very clear political positions. You can’t just ignore this”. I feel something drop inside my brain. Good argument. Damn. “And while it’s good that you also have Normal Slavic Girl and Quirky Cool Boy to balance things out, I see a heavy load of problematic people on your list. And quite frankly, based on what I’ve seen from Horror House up until now, I don’t understand what they’re about at all, and I don’t understand why you’re interested in them. I haven’t been able to find any actual works of theirs on their website or Youtube channel. To me, it all just looks like parties and provocative, self-promotional reels. If you could get them to send me a portfolio with actual presentation of their art, we could start from there”, Connie Cox says and sends me out her door. 

I leave the university building feeling equally inspired and defeated. My confidence has been disturbed and disrupted, which is a part of the Connie Cox experience for me. I’ve had several consultations with her in the past about my work. No matter how convinced I’ve been by my own ideas and abilities before meeting Connie Cox, she always manages to subvert my entire belief system with her deep knowledge, strong articulation skills and high moral standards, and I leave feeling dumb, overwhelmed, exhausted and totally enriched at the same time. And this time is no exception. 

Outside on the street, I unlock my bike while the friendly spring-sun kisses my winter-pale face. I have a long day ahead of me, lots to do, but my energy has left me in the confrontation with the fundamental issue in the realisation of my vision for The Unsafe Event. I feel demotivated and the only desire that’s left in me is the one telling me to go home and barricade myself inside of my apartment until I’ve slept off this harsh reality check with my own short-sightedness. Right when I’m about to get on my bike, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I fetch it out. It’s my newly self-appointed mentor on The Project, Sinon, calling me from Berlin. “Hey cookie, how did the meeting with the curator go?”, he asks. “It was brutally interesting”, I say. “Talk to me.”, and I do. “I don’t want to create a space that’s hostile towards queer people”, I tell him, "I want The Unsafe Event to intersect and align, to disrupt our tedious consensus culture by creating a platform where everyone feels welcome, even though we might not understand each other personally or politically. Art brings everyone together! Am I a disillusioned hippy for thinking this possible? What do I do when certain artists don’t want to participate alongside the “problematic” artists? Ugh I just want to sleep for a hundred years now, I feel like I’ve gotten myself trapped inside of a Gordian knot with this project”. Sinon snorts on the other end of the line, “Seems you were being way too honest in there, Ronja. Next time you have a meeting with Connie Cox, you turn up wearing a keffiyeh, waving the LGBTQ-flag and introducing yourself as non-binary”, I can’t help but giggle at the image Sinon has created in my mind. “And don’t call the exhibition The Unsafe Event just yet”, he continues, “call it The Super Safe Event and talk about privileges and gender politics. We just need to get the space. Then we can do whatever we want in there”. I sigh, “I think I gotta talk to Mephisto and Beth, Sinon. Can you tell them to call me when they have time? They haven’t answered to my last messages and I feel like it’s very hard to sell them when I don’t really know what it is that I’m selling”, “Sure, they’re still hungover from the weekend, but I’ll tell them to call you when they’re up and running again”, Sinon assures, “Why hungover, did they have some kind of celebration or do they just go on random benders now and then?” I ask, curious about Mephisto and Beth’s activities. Apart from their online content and a few recent phone calls, I don’t know these people at all. “Yes, it was Beth’s 30th Birthday a few days ago, they’ve been partying all weekend”, Sinon tells. “I can’t believe Beth and I are the same age. Do you think we can be sisters?”, I ask, “Yes, I predict future sisterhood!”, Sinon enthusiastically confirms before we say goodbye and hang up. I get on my bike. On my way through the city I think about the ambiguity Mephisto and Beth’s relationship embodies: a seemingly very odd combination of people, yet so very clichéd. She’s this young, slim, beautiful woman who looks like sunshine. He’s this broad, hairy, coarse older man who sounds like a bulldozer when he speaks. He’s this notorious, rebellious male artist, she’s the crucial sidekick that makes him look more human. I’ve seen this kind of art world hetero-coupling a thousand times before, though never up close. I’m now thinking that might be another reason why I’m so intrigued by Beth and Mephisto: Those two could be a chance for me to investigate that very cliché of a relationship, inside-out: The beauty and the beast. 

December 2025, Leipzig

“I’ve got friends who hate you!”, NPC117 tells me. We’re standing across from each other, fairly close, in a moving tram taking us and our small group of drunk friends through the dark streets of the city. No one except for Nero overhears the conversation between myself and NPC117. Nero is sitting alone in the corner of the wagon, a bit distinct, yet still there, either he’s just fed up with all of the chatter and needs a moment of solitude, or he’s fed up with the topic of our conversation. Or he’s just really drunk and concentrating on not throwing up during the ride. I frown and look at NPC117, “Why? Do they know me?”, “No, but they think you’re a fascist”, NPC117’s answer falls promptly. An immediate, sincere laugh breaks my face in a broad smile. “You like that, don’t you?”, NPC117 says in a serious tone and takes a sip of his beer, “No, it’s just that it’s absolutely absurd”, I say, before Roald yells at us from the end of the wagon that it’s time to get off. “Watching that guy speak at that event was like watching him wet himself in public. It was unbearable!”, NPC117 continues as we exit the tram. “Why would he come all the way to Leipzig just to wee himself in front of an audience?”, NPC117 continues, and I start laughing again. This time because it’s actually really funny what NPC117 is saying. The guy he’s referring to is called Mephisto. He’s the leader of a reckless pseudo-art cult called Horror House with whom I managed to get myself devastatingly intertwined over the span of six months this year, March - August. The event NPC117 is talking about is an artist talk I organised in Leipzig in July. As the collaboration between myself and Horror House had reached it’s climax in terms of public attention and scandalisation, Mephisto and his partner Beth, co-director of Horror House and Mephisto’s persistent enabler, had gone from their base in Amsterdam to Leipzig to give the protesting voices against them a chance to engage in direct dialogue with Mephisto about their questionable collaboration with the American far-right, reactionary weirdo called Guy Bug.

Out on the street we stop in front of a late night shop to buy more drinks before going to Roald’s apartment. It’s a cold December night. It’s Roalds birthday and he’s gathered his friends to celebrate. The past days I’d been contemplating whether I wanted to go or not. Yesterday I was in bed all day, feeling like my spirit had left my body and now my body was slowly deceasing. “I can’t handle anymore judgmental, condemning interactions with anyone”, I whispered to Roald. He’d come around my apartment to make me chicken. “The lunatics in Amsterdam are basically terrorising me by now, and there are hostile side-eyes everywhere I go in Leipzig. I don’t know how I’m ever gonna emotionally recover from this living nightmare”. Roald sat by my bed, quietly, “I feel like I’m dying, it’s so pathetic”, a weak giggle slipped through my lips. “Will you tell me a story about friendship?”, I whispered from my pillow, eyes closed. “A story about friendship…”, Roald reflected. “Yes, please”, “Okay. Once I was at a train station with my friend Peter. Two guys tried to steal Peter’s backpack, and in the heat of the moment, Peter fell down on the train tracks. The guys ran away and I jumped down on the train tracks to help Peter get up on the platform again. Peter was very happy how I helped him”. I opened my eyes slightly, cloudy vision of Roald leaned back on his chair next to my bed, his hands folded on his belly. “How stereotypical”, I thought to myself, “How straight cis-men always grab any chance they get to make themselves look like a hero. Their ego-driven opportunism sabotaging every potential for a poetic moment of vulnerability”. Feelings of irritation and repression gnawed at my already shredded heart as I dozed off to sleep. I woke up later to the smell of freshly roasted chicken. I loved Roald for feeding me. We ate the chicken while watching Melancholia by Lars von Trier. “Lucky bastards” I thought, as the world came to an end when Melancholia blasted into earth, and everything and everyone dissolved into beautiful lights. “Roald I don’t know if I’ll have the power to come to your birthday tomorrow evening. Would it be okay for you if we just meet the two of us first, and then later when you meet with your friends I just go home?”. Roald looked at me from underneath his blanket. His eyes turned big and his lips small. “I’d be so happy if you’d be there all the way through though!”, he said and we both went quiet. After a few minutes, Roald broke the silence; “Ok I’ve thought about it. If someone acts out of line towards you tomorrow, I’ll ask them to leave, efficient immediately”. I felt a rush of inner warmth running through my beaten chest. I smiled, “Really?”, “Yes, promise”, Roald assured.

24 hours later, something’s telling me it’s time to go home. Maybe it’s Roald’s friend, NPC117’s more and more aggressive attitude towards me. “What do you think about Horror House’s collaboration with Guy Bug?”, he asks me. We’re still standing around on the street, Roald is inside the late night shop with other people purchasing a box of beer, Nero and Thea are standing around half-way listening to my conversation with NPC117. I know I’m entering a danger zone by involving myself further in this interaction. But hey, he’s Roalds good friend, and Roald is one of the smartest people I know, so how hopeless can NPC117 be? “I was really hooked in the beginning. I thought Guy Bug and Horror House’s idea for the Venice Biennale was quite interesting. Their original idea was that 100 different artists, from all over the world, should each create their own individual interpretation of Titian’s The Rape of Europa”, I tell NPC117, who’s looking at me with an outmost look of concentration on his long, pale face. “I thought it was an interesting approach to curate the American Pavilion. But I don’t really care for Bug’s political ideas though. They’re pretty much the opposite of how I want to see the world evolve myself”, I add, and light up a cigarette. “What do you thi…”, I almost get to ask, but before I can finish my sentence, NPC117 interrupts me: “What do you think about muslims in Europe?”, he asks. I take a deep breath and inhale my cigarette while I contemplate this super random question of his. It’s obviously a trap. Sadly, our conversations has now turned into a test in which I’m subject to NPC117’s self-entitled need for proving him and his judgemental friends right: That their hate towards me is totally justified, and that I am in fact a fascist! Or I answer the only thing that would be, in these characters minds, acceptable: “Muslims in Europe are my favourite thing in the world! I can’t get enough of them! I hope to become one myself one day!!”. Total surrender. Though they might not even accept this, coming from me, cause they’ve apparently already collectively decided, a long time ago, that I am absolute trash. I decide to take the high road and just share my honest, current idea on NPC117’s attack disguised as a question: “Generally I have nothing against muslims in Europe. But it’s obvious that there are cultural differences that cause problems with integration. I do think Europe has the resources to deal with these issues though”. I speak softly and slowly. Make sure I choose my words wisely, so they can’t be misinterpreted. I make an effort to keep calm. NPC117 releases his sturdy gaze from my face, looks down at the ground and sighs resignedly. “Your answer is only okay”, he says and shrugs his shoulders. Oh, is daddy disappointed? I think to myself, as I feel a stench of anger presenting itself inside of me. Who the fuck made this man president of the world? High judge of moral order? What a despicable, patronising way of engaging with me. Has he been feeling this way towards me the entire time during our conversation? That he’s doing me a favour by talking to me? Does he think he’s here to teach me a lesson, make me understand something I’ve been blind to, up until he sacrificed 20 minutes of his life to help me out? Or rather, is his sole motivation to talk to me that he’s finally gotten a chance to put me to a well-deserved test and get something super “problematic” out of me, so he can go back to his group of hysterically intolerant friends and tell them that they were all right? What the fuck is this? But before I get to remove myself from this more and more uncomfortable situation, NPC117 breaks out in a rant about how much he loves muslims: “I think they are an enrichment to our culture! I think muslims make our world a better place! I love muslims! Look how many great muslims there are here on the Eisenbahnstraße! Look at all of these fantastic food shops around, all run by fantastic muslims!”, he goes on an on, and I just stand there, silently, smoking my cigarette, listening to him, while it takes me all of the power I don’t have to not laugh. Finally he stops and looks at me, waiting for a reaction, I suppose. I nod my head and smile. “Sure, I’m not contradicting you”, I say, and NPC117’s eyes suddenly turn frozen. “Why are you getting defensive now?”, he asks me, his incredibly long face even longer now, “I’m not getting defensive, NPC117. You are”, I say while Roald and the rest come out of the late night shop with our drinks and Nero and Thea approach me to ask what the hell is going on. “I think I’m done talking to you now!”, NPC117 declares, looking like that one stone-face emoji I’ve been using a lot lately when chatting with my friends. Well, there you have it. I was unknowingly being put to an exam in political correctness, and now he’s decided I failed, hence he’ll be sleeping sound tonight. He turns around and pulls Roald aside, “Can I talk to you for a second?”, NPC117 asks him. And tell him what, exactly? That I didn’t say how much I love muslims in Europe and that Roald should stop being friends with me immediately and at best call me out on Instagram as well? Also, wouldn’t this be my cue to go home now? But, of course, out of sheer stubbornness, I decide to climb the stairs to Roald’s apartment with everyone else. I have a right to be here. Roald invited me. He’s my friend and he wants me to be here. And up until NPC117 started having a meltdown, I was actually having a pretty good time. And Nero and Thea are here too. They’re cool. But as we climb the stairs, the mood is weird. No one is saying anything to each other, and I’m in an inner dialogue with myself, making a serious effort to not participate in further escalation of this already pretty fucked up situation. Inside Roalds apartment, I go sit by the table in the kitchen, while Roald and NPC117 goes to Roald’s bedroom. Nero, Thea and a few other people come to join me. We all open up our canned rum & coke and beers and light up cigarettes. The others make attempts to start conversations while I try to calm down for a second. But just as I thought NPC117 and I had finally agreed on something, namely never to interact with each other again, he’s standing in front of me. It seems he’s not done yet. He’s standing next to my chair, looking directly down at me, without saying anything. I get seriously irritated and look back at him, “What? What is it that you want? Why do you have this despicable need to seek my attention just so you can reject me the entire time?”. Everyone around us go quiet. A vile little smile dances on NPC117’s giant face. It says “I got you”, only hate in his eyes. As he leaves the kitchen he says “I didn’t reject you. But you are a fucking racist”. I feel a violent punch in my chest. My hands start to shake. I inhale my cigarette deeply. “Why did he say that?”, Nero asks, and Thea gets up and follows NPC117. Everyone else just sits awkwardly around. Where the fuck is Roald? Now would be a good time for him to keep that promise he made me 24 hours ago. No actually, 10 minutes ago would have already been appropriate. I feel like I’m loosing my breath, chest hurts. Fuck, point of no return. As tears begin to run down my heated face, NPC117 turns up in the kitchen, again just standing somewhere and looking at me. I look at him directly, “Leave”, I say in a sturdy, loud tone, “Leave right now”. But NPC117 doesn’t leave. Instead he attempts to put a hand on my shoulder. I whip it away, “Do NOT touch me”, I say, “Get the fuck out of here”, I yell, and slam the kitchen door as hard as I can as NPC117 finally leaves the room. I dissolve in tears. “That asshole doesn’t know me at fucking all, and he has ZERO idea what I’ve been going through this year”, I tell Nero and Thea, who are still sitting by me. Everyone else has exited this massacre of a party killer. Both Nero and Thea try to talk to me and say nice things, each leaving the kitchen in shifts to ask NPC117 to leave the party, which doesn’t work. Roald has to do it. It’s his apartment. His birthday. But Roald doesn’t show. Apparently, he’s busy hiding in his room. Flight mode. The door to his bedroom is half-way open. I can see it through the kitchen door, and I can’t see who’s in there, but I know it’s Roald. I sit in his kitchen and try to stop myself from crying for about an hour. I try to lighten up and speak normally to Nero and Thea, but unsuccessfully so. “Your reaction is surprising me”, Thea says, “You’re always coming off so strong”, “I know, I hate to identify with the victim-position”, I tell her in a liquid voice. After a while of sitting around waiting for myself to stop crying, I accept defeat and put on my coat. “I’m going home”, I tell the others. “Should we come with you?”, they ask. “No, it’s fine, I just need to sleep”, I say and give them both a hug before I leave the apartment. “I’ll take you to the door”, Thea says and gets up. Out on the staircase she looks at me with her big, bright eyes. She grabs my shoulders and looks at me directly. “You’re okay”, she says, compassion written all over her beautiful, strong, clarified face. “And you’re a decent person, don’t ever doubt that”, she gives me a kiss on my red, salty cheek and sends me down the stairs. It takes 3 minutes and 12 seconds to get from Roald’s apartment to mine. We both live on the Eisenbahnstraße. The guy at the late night shop across from my apartment, the one where I buy single cigarettes for 50 cents, calls me “Cleopatra of the Eisenbahnstraße”. I don’t really know where it comes from. But I sure take it as a compliment. 

It certainly was a dangerous experiment. The Project. The Unsafe Event. My life. My art. I lost my head in it and spend the good part of a year searching to get it back. At times I’ve been totally confused of my own actions and everything they birthed. What was it that I wanted (to do)? What’s the core of The Project? Who am I? Who’s Ronja Brainstorm? What the fuck does she want? And what about the Art Whore-ism? 

When the border between life and art gets so brutally, consequently and radically dissolved, the danger it breeds is inevitable. I think I knew. I think most people knew. And they told me. Time and time again, they told me, while my own intuition roared inside of me, constantly battling my oblivious insanity and self-destructive convictions. And on the outside, out there in real-life-Leipzig, at my base, in my bubble, the stronger the reactions towards myself and The Project, the more insistent my performance grew. So why did I do everything I did? Why throw myself into an artistic endeavour so bound to go wrong, in almost every possible aspect? Why insist on pushing myself further and further into the abyss of madness, well knowingly it’d potentially be my social death? The answer: Because I could. As a self-claimed BoBo (Bourgeois Bohème) with, in my dear professors words, “eine extrem hohe Begeisterungsfähigkeit” (“an extremely high enthusiasm-ability”), an insatiable desire for danger and drama, a, according to my therapist, “narcissistic ground pattern” (which is NOT the same as having a narcissistic personality disorder), and a Danish passport, my story can be only my story. No one else’s. And this is why it’s mine to tell. One of the most shocking teachings I take with me from the madness of Summer-Autumn 2025 is how scary it can feel, when you realise that your story is constantly being told by other people. A lot. And not kind-willed, well-meaning, trustworthy people, no no. People who doesn’t want the best for you. Judgemental, gleeful, scandal-starving strangers. Or enemies who used to be your friends. 

So while I discovered new respect and compassion for actual celebrities who bend completely under the pressure of public scrutiny, I didn’t get to pull the brakes on this way too wild ride, before I crashed into a stone wall in a tunnel and my car exploded. 

I know it all sounds a bit dramatic. But I live dramatically. My entire existence takes place on a rich spectrum of violent emotions. I’m fortunate to have a handful of tolerant, impressively intelligent friends and a loving, endlessly patient family. And yes, I easily get bored. And yes, many of my life’s biggest decisions I’ve made in moments of sheer restlessness. But the year of 2025 was for my part driven by something different. At best, it was driven by passion and curiosity. At worst, ego-maniac narcissism and idolatry. 

All of this, combined with a poetic outlook on the world, is the Mother of The Project. Who’s the father, you might ask, and I’m happy you do! I’d say the father is the time and place in which Mother gives birth to The Project: Northern Europe, 2025. Mostly in tense, repressed, raw Eastern-German Leipzig, with strong ties to a healthy, stable, wealthy butter hole called Copenhagen, as well as a rather dangerous connection to a reckless, underground art cult in Amsterdam. 

Mother tells the story. She always does. Regardless of what father throws at her, Mother will tell the story. And so I will. The next eight months, I’ll publish a new text every week, telling the conflicted, twisted and ambiguous story of my beloved problem child, The Project. 

Writing about past experiences is like committing myself to live in the past for a while. This scares me a bit, I have to admit. But though there is so much of my past I don’t enjoy thinking about at all, radically plunging myself into these moments and writing about them as if I’m still living them, is to me the most powerful way of channeling lived life. Eliminating the distance time has naturally built between myself and my experiences, is what I call “writing with immediacy”. My writer-friend M says that writing as I-narrator in present tense is the most complicated method of all writing methods. He says it’s because, as a writer, this method requires an incredible overview of what information the reader will need for them to be able to understand what’s being described. And this can be very difficult to manage when writing so directly from your very own point of view.

But both writing in past tense, as well as writing about the different events of this story chronologically, would bore me to death. I want to write the story of The Project with the same immediacy and impulsivity that I lived and created it. Only in this way can it be real. That is, as real as art can be. The stories within the story will naturally intertwine and entangle, like silk threats dancing and colliding, the nonsense will make sense and the sense will make nonsense. Cause though it’s become more and more fathomable and graspable what the hell went down last year, the more answers I find, the more questions they open up. How to dig twenty thousand deep holes in a tiny field of fragile flowers? While the world around me keeps turning, screaming, yelling, pulling and pushing, violent distractions and influences for a woman who’s already been shredded to pieces, still barely has managed to put herself together again? 

Anyway, I’m loosing myself in cloudy metaphors. The point is: the story is there. And it will rise and unfold like a hundred sunflowers that have been hanging low for months, in the shadows of anxiety, fear and shame.

Ok I’ll stop now. So I can start.