Here, Carolina Jonsson is now showing a two-part video, Gränsland 1 from 2021, and Gränsland 2 from 2023. The thematic starting point for these videos is a series of generic sculptures of children created in the 1940’s and 50’s. At this time just after the war, public art was often used to educate people and create a common narrative for a better future. The children in these sculptures, mostly naked young girls seen through the eyes of male artists, became symbols of hope for a better tomorrow, but also a symbol of health and the natural order of things. These sculptures got Carolina Jonsson thinking about how she, as a female artist, would choose to portray a child today, and how a child today would want to be portrayed. The answer, she realized, was anything but simple. In a time when we are surrounded by an unprecedented flow of images, and people´s self-awareness is at an all-time high, the child's encounter with the camera becomes ambivalent. The pure joy of a child playing is present, but also glimpses of insecurity, self-awareness, and self-control. This becomes especially visible in the second part, Gränsland 2, which was filmed earlier this year. Here the child has become a teenager. The teenager’s desire to be a child and to play is still apparent, but not without a conflict of interest, making the playing soft and beautiful as well as aggressive and frustrated.
The works in the exhibition are created in collaboration with the depicted child, actor Emmylou Almén and the musician/composer Anders Hagberg.