Foajé
Radio interview by ?
Broadcasted by SR P1 in 'Foajé' May 5th 2006, followed by 'Tänk
dig en människa' in 'Vita nätter'.
Translated by hegude
Right after Foajé we'll be listening to Stina Nordenstam's "Imagine
a person". A piece in the boundaries between document and imagination.
Originally presented in another context, which my meeting with Stina Nordenstam
will make clear, and this will be an introduction before the performance.
In front of me, I have a large poster that says: Magasin 3 project June
2nd - October 2nd 2005, Djurgårdsbrunn, and there on the poster is
the name Stina Nordenstam, and if I turn the page I can read: "In the
pavilion at Magasin 3 Project, Stina Nordenstam does a recently made sound
installation. It's about catastrophes, traumas, UFOs, love and life in general.
We hear people telling stories, but how much of what they say is really
true?"
Yes, that was really interesting, because now when you just quoted it, and
I got that email, I immediately reacted to that it was in a way fuzzy, and
it was unspecific and, like poetically universal. And in the same time I
realize that it's me who have written that formulation, but one year ago.
There's always certain parts of fiction and abstraction you know, so when
I wrote that presentation one year ago, then I probably thought that this
was a quite daring little program description. And now, one year later I'm
kind of: What a poetically universal, fuzzy rubbish.
But then it says: The piece revolve around the human being's unique capacity
to recover from traumatic experiences.
Yes, absolutely, and that still make sense, that's right to 100%, but I
still think there's something excusing in my way of presenting it back then.
On the one hand, it is a story, a couple of voices that describes a changeling's
abduction and experiences. On the other hand it's what I believe a piece
about the general capability of the memory, the imagination, the thinking,
Yes, that it's creative, I mean that the memory is creative.
But what makes me very curious is the changeling- and abduction-experience,
what does that mean to you? Can you tell?
Well, it is quite central. In some way, it was like, by the time when I
was supposed to think: What am I supposed to do with this? What kind of
piece should I do? Then this became, as I said, one of the main themes,
that kind of presented itself. And for example it was... For a quite long
time of my life, my close friends and close relations were foster children.
And sometimes they were adopted children, but mostly foster children. And
I don't know why, I didn't have like an analysis of that, and I don't know
even now if I have a complete analysis, Doing analysises is ot my cup of
tea, really. It's my cup of tea, in a way, to examine those circumstances.
And some things are in a way... It burns in a way, certain problem formulations,
and also cultural phenomenons, that this also concerns with this idea about
abduction, to be robbed away.
Exactly, Abduction in english and american, 'Abduktion' in swedish. I've
seen that there are movements that gather people together, who believe they
have been abducted, and maybe exposed for various observations by foreign
creatures, indeed.
Yes, I can say as a cultural phenomenon, and on a personal level, they are
some kinds of abuse stories, I mean to tell about something that's impossible
to tell about, something you can't tell about in another way, so you invent
explanation models, sort of.
But you have also behaved like that in the material where you've both collected
and changed.
Sure, and in a way, it's extremely interesting I think, exactly this, that
it's corresponding in both form and content, and approach. And also the
fact that I wasn't aware of that when I started, and then I became more
aware of it, like gradually.
This time you've been collecting voices and writing words, and meanwhile
the music appeared, as I can see parallel to that. Can you possibly tell
me how it worked?
Well, that's a little luxury I think, and something that's... Well, music
is my primary occupation, you know, and something that I know very well
because I've been doing it a lot, like basically I really control music
and working with music, but at the same time
that's not enough for me. There's something very limited about music because
it's really unintellectual, and it's not about thinking really.
What did you expose yourself to in this, that you don't do in music?
Well, my expectation is that music will be only a part of my activity,and
that I'll continue working with other expressions where there's more of
thinking. For example when I've told anyone about the project, in particular
people working with documentary and news and such, then I've met quite strong
reactions over the fact that I rewrite. It's almost like some kind of abuse,
to at first invite people to talk about very private things, and then go
home and rewrite it. Well, I think that the plain documentary story is problematic,
and a bit uninteresting. I know it sounds tough, but in a way I feel like
you with help from fiction, you can like reach levels and you can move around
on a different floor.
We're going to listen to the piece "Imagine a person" b
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