Then will be now and then is here

Johanna Byström Sims has dug in Rydö Bruksmuseum’s archives in search of recordings from older Rydö residents’ voices. At the same time she listened to and recorded some of the young Rydö residents’ stories. She has created drawings of her experiences of the countryside, but also transformed a meadow into a temporary storytelling scene together with the local music choir Lyran. All the individual destinies and places that are available in Rydö together create a fabric that makes up the identity of the place. But how to tell that interwoven history? In her work, Johanna Byström Sims asks this question and offers several possible answers. The stories she worked on during her time in Rydö is included in a digital work based on Augmented Reality technology, which was installed in the spring of 2024. The work is both site-specific for Rydö, but also showcases the voices of Rydö for the outside world.

Studies of Rydöbruk. Drawings by Johanna
Byström Sims.

Performace on the meadow
with the music orchestra Lyran