Artist profile:
Marianne Backlén is a Finland-Swedish writer who has published 14 books, most of them novels. She also writes for various culture magazines. Her novel Karma has a Buddhist theme, following the Noble Eightfold Path. In her latest novel from 2015 she explores her family history, how wars wound and separate people. She is interested in social issues, the world of young people, gender equality, comparative religion, contemporary art and dance. In her blog Violetta skymningar (Violet twilights), inspired by a poem by Edith Södergran, she writes about life in Helsinki, the changing of the seasons, being a grandmother and getting older…

Residency plan:
Since 1976, Marianne Backlén has been in touch with Japanese Nichiren Buddhism. To her it represents a modern form of Buddhism, focusing on individual karma and the possibility of world peace, kosen rufu. She is currently working on a novel with diamonds as a metaphor, from the Diamond Sutra to luxury jewelry and conflict diamonds. In this novel she hopes to include a chapter set in contemporary Japan. Her next project is Den mystiska resenären (The Mysterious Traveller), focusing on travels in both fantasy and the real world, long and short journeys. The journey from Kamakura to Kyoto takes twelve days. If you travel for eleven but stop with only one day remaining, how can you admire the moon over the capital? Nichiren, 1280

Date	2019.04.01 - 2019.04.30
Place	Residence 3