Alexander Rynéus

The Story Machine (2020) 

The film The story machine took shape during the residency Place between people in Hylte municipality. I came there with an ongoing interest in how stories shape a place, but also how they move between people. Sometimes clearly, sometimes almost imperceptibly. 

My artistic work often starts in a place and encounters with people who live there. In Hylte, it became clear how stories not only reflect a place but also help build it. In the middle of the community there is a paper mill, like a real story machine, where the paper for newsprint is produced to carry stories further out into the world. At the same time, other stories are happening in parallel. In everyday life, in conversations, in memories. And in what has not yet really taken shape. 

During the residency, I moved through sites and places without fully knowing what would become a film. I tried to stay with what otherwise easily passes by. Small events, fragments, and voices. The film grew out of encounters, rather than from a finished idea. Some of the filmed material was also projected outdoors, on a large rock, a former boundary stone in Rydöbruk. As if letting the stories meet the place again and perhaps change there.  

I began to think of storytelling as a way of sorting the world. Something we do to understand. But carry with us. Sometimes lightly. Sometimes heavier. I realize that I often return to a fascination with how people relate to their stories. What is preserved, what disappears, and what is allowed to continue living on.  

The residency also generated encounters with other artists. Works that ran alongside each other, and sometimes into each other. I continued to collaborate with Johan Lundberg on the music, and what started there continued afterwards. Friendships were also formed that, in various ways, continue to live on in my work. 

The story machine revolves around and within all of this. Not as a fixed story, but as something that circulates. A space to stay in, where stories arise, shift, and sometimes overlap. There, it is not always clear where a story begins or where it ends. 

– Alexander Rynéus 

The story machine is shown Nov 21 at Halland Art Museum

Alexander Rynéus is a Sweden based film director and artist, education in Fine Arts, documentary film and photography. Nominated for Dox:Award at Cph:Dox and for ”Best newcomer award” at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. 

https://alexanderryneus.se/

People and Place (Hylte Municipality, 2020) examined the significance of stories and tall tales for a place and the people within it. What connections, points of contact, and contrasts exist between the memories and folklore of older people and the new arenas used by young people for sharing information, spreading rumors, and fostering social connections?