Arkiv
Indien 2011-12. En reseskildring genom ett projekt om en resa
My project is based on a journey to India in thewinter of 2011-12. I knew that I wanted to dosome sort of travelouge based on my photos fromthe trip. I also knew I wanted to do some sort ofbook. How this, the story of my travels in India,would be told and what the theme was going to be,that was more elusive.I started out with the notion of a retelling of theold epic Ramayana and combining this with mytravels and the critical perspective of Edward W.Saids Orientalism. This proved to be an impossibleequation and I also had to rework my plan to fitthe tight timeframe I had. In the end I chose totell a much more personal story about the memoriesof my trip. The work raised questions of howmuch you can manipulate a material and still tellthe truth about the reality of things. And if thepersonal can be made to be of interest to others.The finished version of the book is in the form ofan archive for memories and mementos. The commonthread throughout the work is the more thanfour meter long picture representing the journey.The picture is composed of several photographsand in details accordingly true, the whole ofthe picture is something more like a dream or amemory. Inside there are two more layers, writtenmemories and photographic mementos. The wholething is set in a romantic mood resembling theheroic travelouges of old times. It´s a play withthose orientalist themes in a commentary to theway the west historically have been portaying theeast. I wanted the romantic allure but when youlook closer it shows a much truer representationof India today. I think that I succeeded well inwhat I set out to do. I think I found a good balancebetween true-to-reality and poetic fiction in thiswork that is a peek into the private memories of ajourney through another land.