Sweden: Truth, Compassion, Tolerance International Art Exhibition Premiers at a Health Fair in Jönköping

On Friday May 7th, practitioners from four Swedish cities travelled to the city of Jönköping in the province of Småland to participate in a health fair called “New Time Fair”. Besides the usual material they take along to health fairs, they also had twenty-one paintings from the Truth Compassion Tolerance International Art Exhibition. This exhibition has already been displayed in North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe but this was the first time it was shown in Sweden.

The location of the fair was a large hall in downtown Jönköping. The organisers welcomed practioners when they arrived and showed them their stall and the long bright corridor where the paintings were going to be hung.

Practitioners were busy hanging the paintings and arranging the stall for the whole of Friday evening. When the organisers came past they expressed how beautiful the paintings were and how nice it suddenly became in the corridor. The caretaker said in a joking tone, “You can’t take the paintings home again!” He said he would really love to have one in his house.

Exhibitors who were in the hall came over and two women stayed for a long time and talked with practitioners about the exhibition. One of them was very touched and said she got goose pimples when she heard about the background of the paintings. She told us that she came from a communist country in Europe and that she knew how horrible communist regimes could be towards ordinary citizens. The next day she came back and took pictures of the paintings and said she just couldn’t let them out of her sight.

All the visitors had the chance to see the exhibition since it was the only way in and out of the large exhibition hall. Many told us that they liked the paintings. One person said, “They are so beautiful. They are just so beautiful…!” Another person said they radiated positive energy. A little girl went past with her mother and asked, “Is this true?” The mother answered, “Yes, these paintings are true.” One visitor stopped for almost an hour at the exhibition and talked with practitioners about Falun Gong and the persecution. Finally he said, “I don’t need to go into the fair, this is all I need.”

At the beginning of the corridor there was a table with a petition form calling for an end to the persecution that many visitors signed.

Down in the fair hall, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises on a large stage and one practitioner talked through a microphone about the effects of the exercises and about cultivation. The organisers came and said it looked really nice. Before the fair closed they called out through the loudspeakers that everyone who wanted to could go onto the stage and learn Falun Gong before they went home.

Some practitioners talked to the exhibitors beside them and one of them said that although there weren’t as many visitors as she wanted, she nonetheless felt that it was worth coming as she had the opportunity to learn more about Falun Gong. She borrowed the introductory book Falun Gong and sat down to read.

Practitioners felt the atmosphere at the fair was very nice. The organisers, exhibitors and visitors all gave positive responses to both the exercise demonstration and the art exhibition. Practitioners experienced how enormously powerful the art exhibition is as a tool to tell people about Falun Gong and the persecution. They were glad they took the chance to participate in the fair.

Originally published in Swedish at http://se.clearharmony.net/articles/200505/14351.html