Dreamdayproject Sneaks Backstage to Meet Celso Piña

Every dreamday has a different story. Sometimes I have been very humble in my approach when trying to capture another dreamday to my collection. Other times I have decided to withdraw my question to avoid an uncomfortable situation. But there has also been times when I have done the opposite and when I have played my dreamday cards with unforeseen skills and strategy. When nothing could stop me from reaching my goal; To conquer yet another dreamday.


My last story about Leif Elggren made me remember this day in Monterrey, Mexico, almost exactly three years ago. But the story behind it began a few months earlier, on the night of El Grito, the 16th of September 2005. I was sitting in the backseat of a car going to a birthday party with my new found friend and colleague Katy, and her boyfriend Carlos. This was almost a year after I had bought my accordion in Warszaw and I was very excited by any accordion music. I had just arrived to Monterrey about a week earlier and this was my first visit in a long row to the country.

While cruising down the streets of Monterrey this night, looking at all the people that were out celebrating Mexico´s independency, I suddenly heard a song on the radio. And I was immediately thrown into a music video, where the people and the buildings that we passed, were like scenes from this song. Or maybe it was the other way around. But there I was, right in the middle of it all. I was very far away from home, but still everything I saw just made perfect sense in that moment. It almost felt familar. I leant over to the front seat and asked who was singing. He is called Celso Piña and he is from Monterrey, Katy says. "Piña" as in Pineapple, she adds. "Celso Pineapple" I thought, it sounded nice...

And in that moment I knew that Monterrey was filled with many surprises waiting to be discovered.

After that night, Celso Piña´s music was the soundrack to many of my experiences in Monterrey. I listened to him on the subway to work in the mornings and in Katy´s car whenever I could. And through the music and the lyrics I felt I got closer to a culture very different from mine.



I ended up staying in Monterrey for almost five months. And by the time I was about to leave I was happy with everything except for the fact that I neither got to meet, nor see Celso Piña playing. I had to meet him before leaving! But how?



I spent my spare time visiting places like Café Nuevo Brazil, reading short-stories and thinking of a plan. I had almost given up when one day something unbelievable happened. I heard a rumour that Celso Piña was to perform on the main square in Monterrey; the Macro Plaza, just a few days before my departure. Could the timing be better? The circle was to be completed...



I asked my friend Roberto to come with me on the big day. We met up early and spent the day visiting markets and eating tacos, preparing ourselves for the big night. I had my video camera squeezed into my litte bag, just in case a dreamday question would pop up at some point.



In the late afternoon we headed for Macro Plaza. The concert was outdoors with some other bands playing as well, but of course we were mostly interested in Celso Piña. The concert was good, except for a big cowboy hat (of course) that was in my way most of the time. (you can see it in the picture below). But I must also say, without putting any blame on the hat, that the concert was not exceptional in any sense. Celso Piña had filled a much more important purpose in my life through my headphones on my way to work, than he did at Macro Plaza. But I guess I needed to see it myself to discover that.



When the concert was over, or so we thought anyway, we took a short walk around the square. We passed the stage and the tents and were just about to leave. But then an idea came up, as they always do, when you least expect it. Roberto, my dreamday camera man of Monterrey, was there. And so was the film camera, along with my dreamday question and most importantly; Celso Piña, somewhere on the Macro Plaza.

It was obvious what had to be done.

I walked up to one of the guards by the fence to the stage. I did not know exactly what to say but I started asking something about Celso Piña and where he was and if the concert was over yet. I chatted with him for a little bit and then I finally said: Well, you see, I have come all the way from Sweden to interview Celso Piña. I work for a magazine. You have to let me in! The guard shook his head.

But I wasn´t giving up that easily. We continued walking down along the fence and just a few meters later we walked into another guard. I told him the same story, maybe with even a little bit more empathy than the first time. He looked nice and smiled to me. I did not need to persuade him any further.

And a few seconds later he opened the gate to me. But only you, he said, your friend has to stay outside. Roberto told me to go anyway and I ran over to one of the small tents. I walked into a man from Piedras Negras and told him I was going to interview Celso Piña but that my camera man was stuck outside. He went with me to the fence and shortly after Roberto was in there as well.

We looked around for Celso Piña and there he was, just infront of us, coming down from the stage! I went up to him and in my broken Spanish I tell him I came from Sweden to interview him. I have to perform another song,he said, but you just wait here, and I will be with you in a second.

He went up on stage and there we were, me and Roberto, backstage! We looked around and noticed a couple of camera men and journalists looking at us. We waited a bit and then when Celso got off stage for the second time, Dreamdayproject could finally get down to business...



Celso Piña treated us as nicely as any of the other professional journalists. I asked him about the music he listens to and where he gets inspiration to his songs. And after some small talk I could finally ask what I really wanted to know:

-Como seria un dia de un ensueño, un dia perfecto, para usted?

He took the dreamday question as seriously as any other question and replies:

-Un dia perfecto es un dia normal!

After all the hassle, crossing fences and getting past security guards to reach Celso Piña, it was a relief to find out that even for him, a perfect day was just a normal day... Continue Reading

Rock Star Goes to Cadaqués and Liza Minnelli Does not Like Planning!

A couple of days ago I went with my colleagues on a study trip to Stockholm to visit a couple of museums. After a long day with many interesting exhibits we went to Wasahof where we ended up having a nice and tasty dinner.


After a series of conversations with the waiter who in the end asked us if we don´t usually go out to restaurants very often, we finally got to order both a three course meny and wine to go with it. Lisa and I went for this one after another long discussion about Bearnaise sauce:

Teater Meny

Örtgratinerade ostron med citron,
Biff Minute med Bearnaisesås och pommes frites,
Vaniljglass med bärsås



During the dinner I was sitting next to my boss Göran ( to the left in the picture). We have worked together for a few months now but I hadn´t gotten close enough to him to ask him my dreamday question yet. Not untill now. However I must admit I had been curious to ask him since I secretly imagined him dreaming of being a full time rock star.

Before the first course was served and after half a glass of wine I took up my mobile phone and turned to Göran...



Göran did not seem to be at all bothered about the question. He answered directly with a dreamday that was well thought of and described into detail. To my surprise he did not mention anything about being a rock star in Nashville. Instead his dreamday would be spent in Cadaqués, Spain. He would start his day by taking a swim in the sea. On his way home he passes a bakery. After that he spends a pleasant day built up through nice and calm activities such as strolling the streets, people watching, wine drinking as well as a nice dinner in the evening.

After receiving this new contribution for my project I was once again struck by the different answers I had received from men and women during the building of this project. Or more specifically, the lack of answers that I have received from women. Lisa realized she was one of those women.

Do women need to think more before responding? Are we less aware of our dreams? Or are we not used to putting our own wishes first? I don´t want to generalize but it is an interesting coincidence. At least it explains the lack of women participating in the project.

Nevertheless, as the conversation continues, Lisa uses her alter ego, Liza Minnelli, to finally express her dreamday:



It turns out to be unpredictable and short. Liza (Lisa) would like to wake up to a long and unplanned Sunday. That is all.

That gave me another conclusion. Maybe it is not the dreams that separate us, but the way we express or strive for them? Maybe Lisa ends up in Cadaqués without even planning for it...

I went back to my hotel room. In bed I looked at the short video clips while throwing an eye on an old movie shown on TV. I felt happy and content. Another day had come to an end and another mission completed for a dreamday worker.

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Pyjamas Dreamdays

Almost exactly three years ago I was working at MARCO (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo) in Monterrey, Mexico for a few months. My supervisor was a very strict woman and she was also the head of education in the museum. I must admit that from the very first day she scared me a little bit. She was tall and had a strong voice. Standing beside her I felt like a 12 year old girl.


I think it must have been at the same moment as I read her dreamday that I saw another side of her. And I started to like it. In that sense this dreamdayproject has become a tool for me to change my opinion about people by getting a glimpse of what is beneath their thick shell. My supervisor´s dreamday was simple and direct: Her only wish in that moment was to stay at home all alone and walk around in her pyjamas.

After reading that I could not help thinking about it whenever I would see her stressing to some meeting being dressed in an uncomfortable suit. It was so bizarre to see her doing all that when I knew that the only thing she really wanted to do was to stay at home in her pyjamas...

I thought about that story when I recorded another dreamday today. It was in the car back from lunch with some of my colleagues at Riksutställningar. The man that I am interviewing is the project manager of two projects that I have been working in. When hearing his dreamday I was struck by the similarities with my supervisor in Mexico. I was also once again thankful for the dreamday question making me discover another side of someone I realized I hardly knew.

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A Dreamday Question That Was Never Asked But Still Answered

The other day I took a plane from Göteborg to Visby. I had decided to bring my accordion and was struggling to fit it inside one of the small luggage shelves above the seats in the plane. I found a spot and squeezed in the bag. Then I looked around for a seat close by and spotted one next to a man in his fifties. I sat down and a few seconds later he turns to me and says: That was a big bag you had there, what do you have in it?


-It is an accordion I respond.

Oh! He replies. Accordions, that is something I relate more to my parents in law or something. How come you started to play the accordion??

I start telling him the story that I have told to so many times before. How I for years had dreamt of playing the accordion and that then one day I saw one for sale in a market in Warsaw and just followed my instinct and bought it straight away. I could not play a tune, but slowly slowly I started to practise for myself. Not that I am an expert now, but it was just one of those things that I had wanted to do for so long and that if I wouldn´t do it I would always continue dreaming.

When telling the man this I was reminded, again, about my dreamdayproject.

We chatted a little about this and that and at one point I was just about ready to ask him about his dreamday. But I never got to ask him. And I am happy I didn´t, because it came all by itself. The man slowly starts telling me that he always dreamt of playing the flute but he never got around to do it. I got really triggered about it and start attacking the poor man about how he can just go home and look for one on the Internet. He laughs and says, you make it all sound so easy.

I keep thinking about him every now and then wondering if he got himself a flute or not... Continue Reading

An Apple Dreamday!

I got this "apple dreamday" from a colleague at work today.



This must be the first object based dreamday so far in my collection. It is a nice thought. It brings the dreamday closer to reality...

Also, this is the first dreamday that I could actually eat:-)


The apple dreamday goes like this:

Imorgon är det sol. Dimma på morgonen. Fia och jag hämtar vår nypressade äppelmust. Går runt i huset vi vill köpa. Hänga upp en hängmatta. Sen blir det springa i skogen, orienteringsträning med klubben. Hemma är allt snyggt och det finns god äppelkaka.

På kvällen får vi besök av våra spelkompisar och det blir dans med bra folkmusik och äppelmust, alltså fest i nya huset.


And this is another dreamday from a colleague.
(It came in digital form)

Skickat: den 7 oktober 2008 16:42
Till: Krystallia Sakellariou
Ämne: SV: Drömdagar!

Min drömdag ser ut som sådan: Det är en dag där alla använder humorn för att uppenbara och förmedla alla sina tankar och känslor. Humorn är alltså formen som visar upp sanningen för dagen. I utsägelsen, i skämtet finns allt det förborgade som inryms i en människa för stunden: tillit, kärleksfullhet, medkänsla o s v. Det vi ser, är det dolda budskapet i uppenbarad form! Continue Reading

A Long Story for a Short Dreamday

Yesterday I went for a coffee in a cosy café called Gula Huset here in Visby, Gotland.
Since I was right in the middle of finishing my last post about the couple in Göteborg I thought I would bring my computer along and finish it off with a cup of coffee.




The café is very small with wooden tables and old fashioned coffee cups. I take a seat by the window and unpack my computer. I get my coffee and begin to write. After a while the small room starts getting crowded. Since I sit by a big table I thought I would be nice and leave it for bigger companies. So after a while I take my things and move over to a small window table just next to a family with two small children.





I am just about to start writing when all of a sudden the man in the family leans over to me and asks: -Do you have wireless internet? Yeah, sure I do, I respond, quite proud of my new 3G-mobile broadband... Well, could you move a little bit further away he says. I got really surprised and looked at him. Oh ok...

-I got my dose of radiation at the library today, he continues, and it really disturbs me. It makes me feel sick. Actually I could feel the signal from where you were sitting at the other table as well, he says. Alright I say and start mumbling something about all the signals that exist around us today and so I say: Well, I can just move back to the other table then...-Thanks I really appreciate it, he says.

And there we go again, balancing a cup of coffee and the computer back to the old table by the window. I begin to write but my mind is unfocused. Why did I not just tell the guy what a stupid idea that is that it would be my computer giving away radiation? The radiaton or signals or whatever you call them, already exists out there, regardless if I am connected or not, or am I wrong?



Anyway, in a little while the family is gone and I can start writing again. I go for a second round of coffee and while drinking it and writing the last lines on my blog a woman from another table comes up to me and says: Is it OK if I take a picture of you when you sit there and write? It just looks so interesting with the combination of old and new, the old café and the modern laptop, she says. Sure I say and try not to pose while staring at the computer.

I finally finish my post on the blog and decide to put the computer back in my bag. I take up a little note book that I have decided to use only for writing down my dreams that I have at night. I start writing down a dream of mine that I had about a week ago about a house that my family owns in Greece. The dream had made such a strong impression on me and I wanted to write it down in detail so I would not forget it.

After writing for a little bit I needed to go to the bathroom. I left my cup and notebook on the table. The toilet is next to the small courtyard and I step outside. When coming back I pass the table where the ladies were sitting who took the picture of me. I smile for myself while thinking what a bizarre afternoon this had been so far. When I get back to the table I get another surprise. I have company. Across the table there is an old man sitting with a cup of coffee, a big sandwich and a book. -Now you have company he said! Ok, that is nice I respond and sit down.

He asks me what I am writing. I am writing down a dream I had some time ago, I said. He gets curious and I tell him about the dream briefly. Then he said: I have two dreams that I had a long time ago and that I still remember very clearly. They are about being lucky and being saved, he says. He starts telling me these dreams in detail and at the same time I remember thinking that right now I must be the luckiest person to get to hear a stranger´s dream, just like that, simple and unpretentiously over a cup of coffee...

That is when I get the idea: Maybe I can take this chance to ask the man what his dreamday would look like. I could not stop myself and a few minutes later I start telling him about my dreamdayproject. He was not overly excited about the question at first. But then he starts thinking and he says:

" Well, first of all, it involves a woman to accompany me. It is a day spent either by the sea or in the mountains. If it is by the sea there is probably a boat involved, and if it is the mountains maybe some hiking. The day is about the joy of spending time with a woman that you care for and to wake up together and fall asleep together at night."

After that we continue our small talk for a little while and eventually I open my note book and start writing it all down. The man takes up his book as well and says. -This is a good book, but it is really hard to read. But I try to force myself to read a little bit in it every once in while...

Hm... I think for myself. Why do we force ourselves to read difficult books when our dreams are so different? Continue Reading

Sleepless in Gothenburg

I really wonder what this couple said to eachother when they walked away this afternoon. One thing is sure though. One of them is not living his dreamday right now.


The video clip is from last winter. I was standing outside Biopalatset in Göteborg, Sweden trying to get some Swedes to answer the same question that I had asked so many times before. Göteborg was somehow more difficult than other places and many people seemed to be too stressed to be disturbed with such a trivial question. If I had been asking something more "serious", maybe something connected to global warming or so, then maybe they would have given the question more thought.

Nevertheless there were some really interesting answers coming up. Some very subtle but yet very honest. This is one of them.

Unfortunately the sound is not very good, but if you listen very carefully you can hear the man saying something very quietly just before he is interrupted by his wife. He mumbles something like " A day when you can sleep..."

In the meantime the wife streches out her arm and looks at her clock and says: We are a little bit in a hurry right now...He never gets to finish his sentence before they are quickly walking away to their set destination. But I hope he finishes the thought in his mind. Maybe maybe he even said it to his wife, and maybe the next day he would be able to change his day.

I also wondered what they were hurrying for that was so important that she could not even listen to what her husband had to say about his dreamday. She had the chance to peek inside his soul for a second, and she did not even listen. I think that is the sadest part of this dreamday. And also, who knows what time he had to get up this morning just to stress out on the busy streets.

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Beach or God?

I met these two guys in Mexico City in 2006. I was standing just outside the main square in Mexico City when I saw the two of them walking down the street. I suspected they were Jehovas Witnesses and I was of course very curious to hear about their dreamday.


The first guy is quick to respond that his dreamday would be to do what he is doing right now, which is to spread the word of God...

The I turn to the other guy. I ask him what his dreamday would be like. He responds something like this:

" Well, all those things that he said before, but also....just go to the beach or something..."

I love the honesty in that answer:-)


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Estar en la Casa Todo el Día

This Dreamday video was filmed in December 2005 in Monterrey, Mexico. My two friends Luis and Roberto helped me out and this was during the second day of Dreamday filming ever. We had taken a taxi on our lunch-break to one of the big fruit and vegetable markets in the city. This girl that I am interviewing is working in one of the stands there.

When I approached her and when she noticed the video camera, she looked really bothered as you can see. (And I don´t blame her...) I remember thinking in that same moment that the whole thing was a bad idea and that maybe I should just leave her alone. But the camera was running and I could not find a way to end the conversation...

So I finally get to ask my question in broken Spanish and I am wondering if she is going to ignore it or not.

But in that same moment something magical happens. And it is exactly those moments that keep me inspired to continue this project.

For a few seconds the expression in her face changes. You can hardly notice but a smile breaks through her face and then she reponds:

-To stay at home one whole day!

My dreamdayproject is not so much about the replies that I get, but more about what happens when you hear the question. When you are forced to remind yourself about your dreams and wishes...

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