................................................
................................................
................................................
................................................
cinema obscura (2005-2006)
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
cinema obscura (2005-2006), camera obscura house. Installed and built for the first time 2005 in the schoolyard of Malmö Art Academy. Since the summer of 2006 permanently placed in the woods near the small village of Bygget in the Swedish province of Halland.
There is a small house, all on its own, in the woods near the small village of Bygget in the Swedish province of Halland. The house is called cinema obscura, and works just like a camera obscura. A small path leads you from the old railway track down to the house. It isn't that far from the village, but there are no signs to show the way. If you've heard the story of the camera in the forest though, and have been told how to get there, it's not hard to find.
cinema obscura is at the edge of the woods, facing a bog. It is a quiet place. Sometimes there is a squirrel or two on the roof. Inside the house, you can hear the branches of fir trees scraping against the walls. Birdsong drifts in during the spring and summer.
Visitors can step through the small doorway, shut the door behind them and sit down on one of the two chairs inside. Next, they wait for the light beams that enter through a small hole in the wall behind them, to make an image of whatever is outside, on the white screen in front of them.
The picture seen is never the same. Weather, wind, light and darkness all add their own character. Strong daylight is needed for a picture to appear at all. In the wintertime, it's sometimes hard to even see the image. Unless it has been snowing. The contrast between the light outside and the darkness inside makes a difference. The picture displaying what is outside is upside down and mirrored. Less sharp than reality, more etheral and picturesque. A different version. A different picture.
I built this house for the first time for the schools annual show in the spring of 2005. It was in a corner of the courtyard outside, and its light grey exterior didn't grab your attention. It looked a bit like a weird shed that had ended up in the wrong place. A little over a year later, with the extensive aid of my dear father and dear sister, the house was erected in the forest where it remains to this day.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
obscure still 12/8 2009
obscure still 2/10 2009
obscure still 28/12 2009
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................