CARLA ÅHLANDER

WORKS

BIOGRAPHY

CONTACT

TEXTS

			UND DAS SEHE ICH ZIEMLICH NÜCHTERN (And I see that quite soberly), Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, 2000 has grown from the larger project I enrum (On Your Own), Malmö Konsthall 2000, where Carla Åhlander interviewed around twenty women in Sweden about their view of the world and what they think is relevant in life. "The Swedish interviews came out of a wish to reflect a time and place and investigate a society that I already knew well myself. When I arrived in Germany – specificly in Berlin where the wall had come down but people were saying that the mental wall between east and west was only growing higher – my situation was almost the opposite. I found myself in a society which I knew very little about, and where I, even after two years, felt like I still was missing the keys to understand this place and people from here. The German interviews were an attempt to examine and understand the place where I was living." All of the conversations came up in an intimate atmosphere, but with a third pair of ears in mind – an element of publicity mixed in with the private. An unexpected meeting is made possible in the intersection between the public and the private. The listener hears one voice of a conversation, much like a monologue, and becomes receiver in a kind of one way communication where a woman by making personal statements, touches on universal social concerns without risk of being interrupted. What is said has an every-day tone and reflects the experience of many people, but includes sharp criticism of society as well.
	Audiofile, Quicktime: 628 KB/3:04 min		Interview fragment as text (German)	English translation