From words to action
502
Participants
8
Flashmobs
20
Languages
320
Hours Practiced
WITHOUT FREEDOM THERE WILL BE NO CULTURE
Authoritarian systems have always supressed and controlled culture. This is not by accident. Cultural expression has an enormous power to help humans connect with our hearts, with our core, our spirit. With emotion. With each other. The authoritarian mind set fears this because when we are connected like this it’s not possible to control us. Cultural expression makes us feel our power, helps us reconnect with who we really are.
So when someone wants to take your freedom away, count on culture being the first thing to go. History shows us this beyond any doubt.
WITHOUT CULTURE THERE WILL BE NO FREEDOM
If we’re stopped from expressing ourselves culturally we cannot be free. Cultural expression is a basic human need – and basic human right. We need to dance, sing, paint, write, dress up, make our environment beautiful or whatever personal form of expression anyone chooses. If we all wear the same school uniform, live in identical housing, work all day and never play we are not free.
Freedom is required for culture and culture is required for freedom. Neither can exist without the other.
I wrote the song ”Vi är fria” (”We Are Free”) in the early spring of 2021. My friends seemed to like it a lot and the constantly asked me to sing it. They told me it made them feel better. They suggested we make a flashmob out of it so I made a 10 minute version with four different parts and then we fleshed it out and created it together over the summer of 2021.
We felt we wanted to try and help people get out of the bubble of fear som many of us have lived in for almost two years now. Just by dancing a singing for a bit, basically. Just to remember it’s nice to be human, you know? The fear is superficial. We can snap out of it.
This flashmob is a highly collective creative effort and apart from the musicians the people involved never performed, danced or sung in front of an audience before.
We are just great friends that like hanging out. We tried to create something we would have enjoyed watching ourselves.
Here’s the result.
/Christoffer Lundquist, Sweden 9th of december 2021
CREDITS
Vi är fria/We Are Free flashmob
Music and lyrics by: Christoffer Lundquist
English lyric translation/interpretation by: Gavin Bloom and Anna Johansson
Musicians:
Lead vocals and guitar: Christoffer Lundquist
Trumpet: Ozcar Noteklint
Accordeon: Bettan Sundberg
Percussion: Jan-Åke Jönsson
Bass drum and snare drum: Percy Andersson
Glockenspiel and castanets: Patrik Blomqvist
Viola and violin: Belén Santón Hedlund
Bicycle bell: Peter Amoreus
Backing vocals, clapping and stomping: The Free Vocal Ensemble of Skåne, Sweden
Arranged, produced and mixed by: Christoffer Lundquist at AGM studios, Skåne, Sweden
Recorded live in Malmö, august 7th 2021
Flashmob choreography by: all participants based on a basic plot by: Christoffer Lundquist
Musical scoring: Jan-Åke Jönsson
Flashmob location scouting: Percy Andersson and Bettan Sundberg
Flashmob photos on homepage: Adrian Cupric
Filmed by:
Rumi Geiger
Gavin Bloom
Marcus Borg
Maria Johansson
Agnes Lundquist
Michael Oddane
Nina Dessner
Jens Hellsten
Flashmob movies edited by: The Mysterious, Anonymous Editing Ace
Homepage by: Fredrik Stoltz
Endless wonderful food supplied with endless love: Evi Elvina
Sea of soap bubbles by:
Rishi
Pontus
Amanda
Olof
Bubble master: Lars Jönsson
Lyric translators:
Italian: Lena Gustafsson Arabic: Ramy El Hamed French: Fredrik Fliungman Spanish: Belén Santón Hedlund Hungarian: Susanna Antonyi Czech: Eva Ragabova Serbian: Zoran Lazin Finnish: Liisa Örnmarker Indonesian: Evi ElvinaDanish: Dawn FastholmRussian: Julia Glinskaya Polish: Dana Wislocka / Dorotha Trusz Chinese: Qu Lei German: Pavitra WolfCroatian: Lukrecija Hrepic Portuguese: Teresa Hernandez Dutch: Anne Bruggen Samoan – Elder Amitua
Cook Island Maori – Ngatugane Glassie
Logistics, organisation and communication: Maria Johansson
