{"id":2675,"date":"2025-07-07T19:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/?p=2675"},"modified":"2025-07-21T07:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T05:27:15","slug":"rotum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/rotum\/","title":{"rendered":"Barefoot in Rotum with Kali"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rotum is not a project, not a retreat center, and not a course. As they say themselves, \u201ca response to the deep human longing to be in the body, in truth, and in the present moment.\u201d<\/em> Here, nakedness is not explained or justified \u2014 it simply is. \u201cA room for nakedness without explanation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"group
”Rotum \u2014 where presence replaces performance.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m here, Avesta Sweden, visiting friends \u2014 partly to hang out, and partly in my role as a photographer with Beyond Nudity<\/a><\/strong>, a separate but related project that Mathias Risberg and I have been working on for eight years. The lines between projects blur. What connects them is the same desire for honesty, for presence, for being seen without costumes \u2014 in body, in eye contact, in silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mathias puts it like this:
\u201cRotum isn\u2019t a place where you come to learn something new.<\/em> You come here to get real. And real isn\u2019t always pretty. But it is true.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\""Here,
”Here, we meet as we are. No masks, no roles.” says Tommie Gyllin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tommie, the owner is always moving between clarity and humor, put it more bluntly:
\u201cThis isn\u2019t some damn retreat. It\u2019s <\/em>a lot of work to get the place in harmony with nature. Nakedness is only part of it. <\/em>Development is probably the strongest keyword\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
”Henrik\u2019s dragon takes shape \u2014 knees welded from scrap.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s Henrik<\/strong> \u2014 who sees dragons in everything from rusty pipes to old tree stumps. Almost anything can become a creature in his world. A bent rod turns into an eye, an old plow part becomes a leg. One moment he\u2019s welding the party tent frame together, the next he\u2019s cutting a piece off because \u201cthe dragon needs knees.\u201d<\/em> With Henrik, nothing is just junk \u2014 it\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something alchemical about Rotum. The everyday blends with the sacred: sweat, laughter, silence, fire. You don\u2019t attend a course \u2014 you are distilled<\/em>. Through nakedness, honesty, and heat, something old falls away. Maybe that\u2019s why the conversations burn. It\u2019s lead turning into gold \u2014 and we\u2019re not sure how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And sometimes it feels like Kali<\/a><\/strong> is walking barefoot between the tents. The wild one. The truth-teller. The goddess<\/a> who destroys illusions so we can finally stand as ourselves. It\u2019s no coincidence that people here often laugh and cry in the same breath. Boundaries blur. Control slips. That\u2019s her energy \u2014 and we let her in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
Fire is an important part of our survival and a central place in the ceremonies I hold and want to hold \u2013 in front of a sacred fire place.\nTommie Gyllin<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Rotum doesn\u2019t offer a program. It offers a state of being<\/em> \u2014 a space of presence, nakedness, and deep connection. There are rituals, talking circles, art and fire ceremonies, where the body remembers itself and the soul finds peace in stillness and flame.
\u201cIt\u2019s a space to land in. To feel that you are fully you, just as you are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
And of course \u2014 there are the conversations. Around the fire, in the sauna, while washing dishes. Talks swing from the completely immature \u2014 farts, horniness, laughter \u2014 to deep reflections on love, boundaries, and longing. Who\u2019s cooking tonight? Who eats vegan, and who\u2019s still dreaming of grilled meat? Who has money to go shopping? And what do you do when there\u2019s none left?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"A
”A fire altar for burning conversations \u2014 nothing is forced, nothing has to be beautiful.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
People talk about jobs, the unemployment office, making art \u2014 and when Tim<\/strong> speaks, we listen. He\u2019s our in-house expert on Hilma af Klint<\/strong>, and the way he talks about her opens new doors. He shows us how her spiritual, bodily, and artistic worlds were always woven together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a response to the human longing for real presence.\u201d<\/em>
A place where you don\u2019t need to try to be anything other than what you are. A room for vulnerability without explanation. A fire altar where body and soul burn together in what\u2019s true and real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rotum is not a project, not a retreat center, and not a course. As they say themselves, \u201ca response to the deep human longing to be in the body, in truth, and in the present moment.\u201d Here, nakedness is not explained or justified \u2014 it simply is. \u201cA room for nakedness without explanation.\u201d I\u2019m here, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Barefoot in Rotum with Kali - Johnny Gustavsson","description":"Rotum is not a project, not a retreat center, and not a course. As they say themselves, \u201ca response to the deep human longing to be in the body, in truth, and i"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nude-fine-art","category-okategoriserade"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2762,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions\/2762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnny-gustavsson.se\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}