Songs from the Downside of Society
Songs from the downside of society was a temporary sound artwork, installed at the gate of Varberg’s fortress. The work was based on the prison inmates’ experience of being detained and no longer having access to the city and society as a whole. Åsa Stjerna wanted to investigate what you miss as a person deprived of liberty. What can you do without, what do you miss and how do you think society could be different? The sound work highlights how we have residents in the city that we are rarely aware of, whose voices do not always find their way back into society again.
In a retrospective text in 2018, Stjerna describes the project:
“My approach was to examine the city from its most extreme pole: what does the city mean to those who no longer have access to it?”
A condition for Stjerna to use their stories was that their identities could not be revealed. Therefore, she transcribed the recorded stories into text and then had actors read them.
The sound work was first installed as a site-specific version for Varberg’s fortress. Another version was later made for the bridge at the entrance to Nyköpingshus. In both locations, the work connected to the location’s history, including as a prison.
Stjerna created Songs from the downside of society in collaboration with actors Maria Ericson, Petter Heldt, Oscar Ohlson, Örjan Hamrin and Sonja Lund from Teater Halland. The actors read in texts from interviews the artist did with members of KRIS Halmstad – Criminal’s revenge in society.
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