Four stills from “Kära mor och far” (2010), DVD 20.10min
Part of a Swedish-spoken trilogy* loosely based on westerns filmed in Europe during the 60′s, “Kära mor och far” (Dear Mother and Father) is set in Croatia. The character that I play is sort of a hippie mutation of Winnetou, an Apache Indian from a series of Germany-produced westerns made for children. As a young kid growing up in small-town Sweden I somehow felt a strong affinity with Native Americans. Little did I know that my hero Winnetou was the brainchild of Karl May, a German petty thief who had never been to America and who later became Hitler’s favorite author. I was also unaware of the fact that these movies were filmed in Former Yugoslavia and that the hero was played by a French actor.
In my research I learned that the first official Croatian victim of the Homeland War (1991-1995) fell in the spectacular Plitvice Lakes National Park, where Winnetou had been in search of The Treasure at Silver Lake (1962). Having grown up in a neutral country my personal experiences of war can all be attributed to Hollywood. Vietnam movies and westerns are intrinsically linked and both genre’s have been used as political vehicles to comment on injustices, and each other. Well-known westerns such as Little Big Man and Soldier Blue both allude to massacres in Vietnamese villages, just as Vietnam movies like Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter make references to cowboys and Indians.
This informs my character’s schizophrenic make-up and the work’s blurring of (national) identities. In classic Hollywood western style he kidnaps the German butterfly collector John Wayne (played by fellow artist Markus Öhrn). His hat makes him a cowboy in my character’s eyes, and as such he confirms my character as being the Indian he always wanted to be. What follows is a display of the Stockholm Syndrome wherein the captive begins to sympathize with his captor, think here of pro-Native American movies such as Dances with Wolves and A Man Called Horse. The mainstream film industry clearly believes that it has to throw a friendly cowboy into the mix in order for us viewers to engage emotionally with the Indians.
People in general, and artists in particular, have a constant need to be validated. During the course of the video my character tranforms from a larvae in a cocoon-like sleeping-bag into a butterfly, and then actively seeks the gaze of the butterfly collector. This scenario also serves as a metaphor for the creative process and how an artwork inevitably is completed by an audience.
For the group exhibition Runaway Train at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm (14 April-20 June 2010) I show “Kära mor och far” within an untitled installation. Flags hanging from a birch tree framework visualize my character’s quest for a sign to symbolize his elusive identity. Nordic Runes, Native American signs, religious and autocratic symbolism continue the wide-ranging use of references set forth in the video piece.
* Also see “Big Game” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
Installation view from “Runaway Train” at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2010
Picture showing “Untitled” (2010), felt and birch trees, and “Kära mor och far” (2010), DVD 20.10min