I Detta Land Kamrat (en kollationering) / In This Country Comrade (a collation)    
2020

In This Country, Comrade (a collation) is a reading performed by three voices and three bodies in a scenography. The relationship between the readings, filling the space on Sundays, and the otherwise deserted scenography thematises the gap between form and content that constitutes the main issue in the piece: where is the political in politics today?

In This Country, Comrade oscillates between the factual and the poetic and addresses the longing for a political vision in an increasingly market controlled and populist social discourse. Are nostalgia and melancholy a potential or a danger within politics? And what are the possibilities for humans to find a common way forward ?

The manuscript takes its point of departure in Swedish socialist poetry from the 20'th century, political statements from folkhemmet ("the people's home"), fragments from contemporary essays and articles and material from the Swedish parliament homepage. The result is a composition in four parts, partly consisting of already existing texts, confronted to create new statements, and partly in new texts generated in the meeting between them.

The main title is borrowed from Svante Forster's poem of the same name from 1976. The concept "collation" in the subtitle refers to the stage in a theatre production where the different parts are casted and the manuscript is read through for the first time by the cast members. In this context, it relates to the dispassionate way in which the sometimes emotional script is delivered; an approach which aligns with the general theme of the piece.

The piece was chosen as Editor's Pick in ArtForum in November 2020 - read the article here

manuscript & scenography: Annika Lundgren
readings: Ellen Skafvenstedt, Tove Posselt & Annika Lundgren 
presented at: Galleri Box, Gothenburg as a solo exhibition