“The Sunshine family used to be the family of Dark, but when darkness settled over the World, they couldn’t let the darkness and fear engulf them. But the thing about darkness is that it can paralyze people, making them like a deer in the headlights of a car.
The thing that helps withstand the darkness is Light! Keeping the light in themselves would not only save them, but also their surroundings. The light is not the Divine Light, but rather the kind of light that preserves common sense, facts, experiences and knowledge. Belief in freedom, one’s own abilities, resistance and the ability to see through lies and manipulation. The family of Dark decided take on a new name in honor of their survival method 一 this is how The Sunshine Family was born,” describes the artist.
All of Tampere Maja’s 2024 exhibitions follow the European Capital of Culture’s theme of Arts of Survival. This exhibition focuses on the search for freedom. “I was raised in perhaps the greatest freedom the world has ever seen,” says the artist. “It was so unfortunately different in Estonia at that time. That’s probably why people here are much more vigilant about protecting freedom than people in Denmark. There it is often taken for granted, it is seen as something that cannot be revoked. But it happens anyway 一 bit by bit, day by day. That’s why it is essential to find tools of survival, just like The Sunshine Family did.”
One of Petersen’s biggest inspirations was his 7th grade teacher, who encouraged him to think for himself and investigate the world around him. “Without him, I don’t think The Sunshine Family would have ever been born,” admits Petersen. He concludes with a twist: that very teacher was one of the people proudly waving the Soviet flag, unaware of the harsh conditions that ordinary people had to endure. The teacher would never have done it, had he been able to take his own advice.
Per William Petersen (born in 1955), has studied at The Danish Design School and is a member of The Estonian Artists and Sculptors Union. He was awarded the Ado Vabbe scholarship in 2021 and has held multiple exhibitions in Estonia and other countries.
