MOURNING A STRANGER
An exhibition together with Hugo Pilate, 2024
Can you mourn that which you have not lived
alongside of? And if not, what are you to do when
echoes of their lives brush up against you?
Traces of past lives surround us, in the gentle
giants of the Gothenburg harbor cranes, to the
lasting impact of the Grén family's commitment to
the green urban spaces of Gothenburg. If it is clear
how we might visit them out of curiosity, or to pay
our respects, it is less evident how they inhabit us
in our daily lives and help us channel our
imaginaries, our convictions, our losses.
Can you mourn someone you’ve never known?
My inquiry takes place in the English park at Lilla Änggården, creatd by the Grén family, where the father is believed to have planted a tree for each child. Of the five children, three died at a young age. These trees have long stood as living markers of their memory. In 2023, one of these trees fell, now known as the Fallen Family Tree. Its fall exposes the fragility of memory and the material traces through which grief endures, revealing how absence continues to shape both the landscape and its histories.This work explores how traces of past lives shape our imaginations and grief. Through 3D scans of meaningful places, collaged images, immersive technology, and a performance where lost children's names are written aloud, the VR piece becomes aquiet act of remembrance.
