TYPE OF PROJECT: Artistic research project and exhibition curation

LOCATION: Stockholm University of the Arts and Galleria 3H+K, Pori, Finland

YEAR: 2024

“A dry wind blows over barren lands. The sky is bleak, the sunlight filtered through a veil of smog. The world is silent, the only sound to be heard is the rolling breeze. When the wind dies away, the silence is deafening. In a deserted room, a human climbs over a pile of broken furniture. A cloud of dust flies up as her friend tosses some old rubbish across the room. Apart from these two, no one has been here for ages. All there is to find are traces from people who have left.”

THEN WE DREAMT OF BIRDS was part of an interdisciplinary artistic research project at Stockholm University of the Arts called Performing Arts With Reduced Carbon Footprint. Professionals from several disciplines – direction, costume, lighting, mask, visual arts, film making and spatial design – in groups or individually created different interpretations of Harry Martinson’s futuristic epos Aniara.

In our group, I wrote a script/song, an addition to Aniara depicting the life and environment of the few people left on Earth. The script was turned into a short film, my short text in quotation marks above being the basis for the scenography. The film was then part of an exhibition in Finland which I curated. I wanted the audience to to meet the text in the room directly in relation to the images, so I gave the text spatial form, writing the script on the floor in front of the projection.