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Royal Dramatic Theatre
Royal Dramatic Theatre
General information
Town or city	Stockholm
Country	Sweden
Completed	18 February 1908
Design and construction
Architect	Fredrik Lilljekvist

The Royal Dramatic Theatre (Swedish: Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern or Dramaten) is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's eight running stages.

The theatre has been at its present location in the Art Nouveau building at Nybroplan, Stockholm since 1908. The theatre was built by the architect Fredrik Lilljekvist. Famous artists like Carl Milles and Carl Larsson were involved in making the decorations, and some of the interior decorations were made by Prince Eugen.

The theatre's acting school, Dramatens elevskola, produced many actors and directors who would go on to be famous, including Gustaf Molander (who also taught there), Alf Sjöberg, Greta Garbo, Vera Schmiterlöw, Signe Hasso, Ingrid Bergman, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, and Bibi Andersson. The school was split off as a separate institution in 1967 (see Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting).

History[link]

17th and 18th century[link]

Bollhuset at Slottsbacken in Stockholm during the 1780s. From right to left: Stockholm Palace, Storkyrkan, Bollhuset Theatre and the Tessin Palace. Drawing, Martin Rudolf Heland.

The first Swedish theatre opened in Bollhuset and Lejonkulan in 1667 and employed only foreign companies. While the plays were sometimes open to the public, it remained more or less a court theatre. The first Swedish play, Den Svenska Sprätthöken, was performed in 1737 by the first Swedish theatre company. The Swedish theatre was turned out of their playhouse by Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia after the 1753-54 season, and the playhouse was given to a French company. In 1773, king Gustav III fired the French company and encouraged Swedish talents, and thus, the Royal Swedish Opera was founded in Bollhuset. A theatre of spoken drama was founded in the same building in 1787, but was not to last long. In 1788 the director fled the country to escape his creditors, so the actors formed a company and asked for the king's protection, which led to the establishment of the national theatre.

Sweden's national stage for dramatic art (spoken drama) was established by King Gustav III in 1788. It was then that the Royal Theatre (Kungliga Teatern) in Sweden was officially split in two, and the Royal Theatre (today known as the Royal Swedish Opera) became thereafter solely an opera stage. For spoken drama a new theatre was built specifically, called Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern—the Royal Dramatic Theatre, to distinguish it from the Royal Theatre (the opera stage).

The king became the formal director and placed the theatre under Royal protection, to be ruled by the actors themselves by votes every fourteenth day under the supervision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. This rule was quite chaotic, and the voting is described as capricious and temperamental; " The male actors arguing with each other, one of the ladies voting yes because another lady voted no, others of them counting their buttons and letting fate decide", and in 1803, the actors themselves asked for the system to be replaced by a director.

The Royal Dramatic Theatre was located in the old premises at Bollhuset during its first years, but in 1792, the old building was deemed to be to run down, and 1 November 1793, the theatre was opened in the Palace of Makalös, also called Arsenalen, where the theatre was to be located for the next thirty years; it was now often commonly called the Arsenal Theatre. In 1798, the theatres and operas of Stockholm were united by a royal monopoly, and the "Two Stages" ruled uncontested over the city for over forty years.

19th and 20th century[link]

In 1825, the old Palace building of the theatre caught fire and burned down in the middle of a performance. The theatre was now located in the same building as the Opera, an arrangement that was to continue for almost forty years.

The middle of the 19th century was to mean changes both within and without the theatre. In 1834, the actors, infuriated by a new system that replaced their percent of the theatre income by a set salary, went on strike, knowing they had succeeded with a similar action against an unpopular director in 1828. This time, however, the strike was broken by the government, which gave some of them raised salaries and fired the others with pensions. The fired actors founded a theatre company that performed all around town, and in 1842, the theatre monopoly was broken and a second theatre was founded in Stockholm; by the 1850s, there were several theatres in the city, and the royal Dramatic theatre experienced heavy competition, especially from the Svenska teatern (Swedish Theatre).

There was much criticism about the sharing of localities between the opera and the theatre, as the localities of the Opera were built for singing and considered unsuitable for spoken drama. In 1863, the Royal Dramatic Theatre purchased the playhouse of an old rival theatre, Mindre teatern, and moved the theatre to it. Here the Royal Dramatic Theatre remained until 1907, and it was here new dramas of the 19th Century were performed: the pioneering plays of Ibsen and Chekov, as well as August Strindberg's late dramatic works, for example Till Damaskus (To Damascus).

But at the beginning of the 20th century, the playhouse was rundown and in desperate need of renovation and a more modern, functional stage. From the 1880s the national stage had suffered stiff competition from several new private theatres in Stockholm, in particular the Svenska teatern (Swedish Theatre), which was run by the charismatic theatre personality Albert Ranft.

Many of the original Swedish stagings of Ibsen's plays had been produced at the Swedish Theatre instead of the national stage, as well as new German and French dramatic works, and the national stage was at same time accused of being old, dusty and overcrowded. There was lively debate in the press on the subject of refurbishing the national stage at Kungsträdgården. Many different kinds of restoration were proposed, but King Oscar II was not satisfied with any of the suggestions. Instead, the decision was soon made to completely tear down the old theatre building and to build a new, bigger, fresher and more modern one at a more suitable location. From the 1850s onwards, Stockholm as a city and as Sweden's definitive capital had changed considerably as had its centre. In 1881, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which had until then been financed by the royal court—which gave the actors status as court staff—was separated from the court and the royal family and made a state theatre, which was completed in 1888.

The new location that was eventually picked out for the new Royal Dramatic Theatre Nybroplan was closer to what was then becoming the heart of Stockholm and was beautifully situated by the waterfront. Fredrik Lilljekvist was appointed head architect, and on February 18, 1908 the national stage's new theatre building at Nybroplan opened with Strindberg's new play Mäster Olof. This building is the present Royal Dramatic Theatre. Here the legendary theatre directors, brothers Olof and Gustaf Molander, Alf Sjöberg, and Ingmar Bergman formed the Swedish theatre and helped shape Sweden's theatrical history with their 20th-century performances.

When mentioning the national stage in Sweden, the reference is generally the old Royal Dramatic Theatre (meaning Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern that was located at Kungsträdgården 1788–1907) and then the new/present Royal Dramatic Theatre, a.k.a. Dramaten, located at Nybroplan since 1908 ("Dramaten" is not used when referring to the old Royal Dramatic Theatre).

Stages[link]

Dramaten currently houses eight stages:

• Stora scenen - the main stage, since 1908 (720 seats)
• Lilla scenen - the second stage, since 1945; renovated and re-opened in 2000 (340 seats)
• Målarsalen - since 1971; a former painting studio for theatrical scenery (160 seats)
• Tornrummet - the small, intimate stage; stage formerly used by the old Royal Dramatic Theare's acting school (60 seats)
• Lejonkulan - Young Dramaten; Dramaten's regular stage for school plays
• Stora Elverket - stage for contemporary/new-written dramatic work
• Lilla Elverket - above (the smaller stage at Elverket

Managing Directors[link]

of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten):

• (from 2009) - Marie-Louise Ekman
• (2002–2008) - Staffan Valdemar Holm
• (1997–2002) - Ingrid Dahlberg
• (1986–1997) - Lars Löfgren
• (1985-1985) - Ingvar Kjellson
• (1981–1985) - Lasse Pöysti
• (1975–1981) - Jan-Olof Strandberg
• (1966–1975) - Erland Josephson
• (1963–1966) - Ingmar Bergman
• (1951–1963) - Karl Ragnar Gierow
• (1948–1961) - Ragnar Josephson
• (1938–1948) - Pauline Brunius
• (1934–1938) - Olof Molander
• (1928–1934) - Erik Wettergren
• (1922–1928) - Tore Svennberg
• (1910–1922) - Tor Hedberg
• (1908–1910) - Knut Michaelson

of the old Royal Dramatic Theatre:

• (1904–1907) - Gustaf Fredriksson
• (1898–1904) - Nils Personne
• (1888–1898) - Gustaf Fredriksson
• (1883–1888) - Anders Willman
• (1881–1883) - Henrik Westin
• (1866–1881) - Erik Vilhelm af Edholm
• (1861–1866) - Eugène von Stedingk
• (1860-1860) - Daniel Hwasser
• (1856–1860) - Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius
• (1852–1856) - Knut Bonde
• (1848–1852) - Svante Gustaf Schyberg
• (1844–1848) - Hugo Adolf Hamilton
• (1840–1844) - Svante Gustaf Schyberg
• (1838–1840) - Karl David Forsberg (financial director)
• (1838–1844) - Alexis Baeckman (director of scenery)
• (1832–1838) - Per Westerstrand
• (1831–1832) - Bernhard von Beskow
• (1827–1831) - Karl Johan Puke
• (1823–1827) - Gustaf Lagerbjelke
• (1818–1823) - Gustav Fredrik Åkerhielm
• (1818-1818) - Crown Prince Oscar
• (1818-1818) - J.P. Törner
• (1812–1818) - Gustav Löwenhielm
• (1810–1812) - Anders Fredrik Skjöldebrand
• (1804–1810) - Abraham Niclas Clewberg-Edelcrantz
• (1798–1804) - J. Hugo Hamilton
• (1792–1798) - Klaes Rålamb
• (1788–1792) - Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt

Notable actors in the history of Dramaten[link]

19th century[link]

• Samuel Ahlgren, (1764–1816), romantic lead.
• Charlotta Almlöf, romantic lead (career peak 1840s-1850s).
• Knut Almlöf, (1829–1899), leading man.
• Nils Almlöf, (1799–1875), tragic lead.
• Charlotta Eriksson, (1794–1862) romantic lead (career peak 1810s-1830s).
• Gustav Åbergsson, (1775–1852), romantic lead.
• Ellen Hartman, leading comedienne between 1880-1910.
• Viktor Hartman, (1839–1899).
• Zelma Hedin, (1827–1874).
• Lars Hjortsberg (1772–1843).
• Emilie Högquist, (1812–1846), romantic lead (career peak 1830s-1840s).
• Elise Hwasser (1831–1894), leading lady 1860s-1880s.
• Gerda Lundequist, tragedienne; leading Shakespeare and Ibsen interpretator (career peak 1890s-1920s).
• Sara Torsslow (1795–1859), tragedienne (career peak 1820s-1830s).
• Ulrik Torsslow, (1801–1881) leading man.
• Carolina Kuhlman, (1778–1866), leading lady (career peak 1800-1820s).
• Fanny Westerdahl, (1871–1873)

20th century[link]

• Anders de Wahl (1869–1956), leading actor, from the 1900s-1940s
• Inga Tidblad (1901–1975), leading lady, from 1920s-1960s
• Lars Hanson (1886–1965), leading man; Strindberg and Shakespearian actor, from the 1900s-1960s, over 120 parts
• Olof Winnerstrand (1875–1956), great character actor and comedy actor, from 1910s-1940s, with 119 parts
• Tora Teje (1893–1970), leading tragedienne, career peak 1910s-1940s
• Anders Henrikson (1896–1965), great character actor, from 1910s-1960s
• Märta Ekström (1899–1952), great character actress (from 1920s-1940s)
• Gunn Wållgren (1913–1983), leading actress; Ibsen, Strindberg and Chechov interpretator, from 1930s-1980s
• Anders Ek (1916–1979), leading actor, from 1940s-1970s
• Georg Rydeberg (1907–1983), leading actor, career peak 1950s-1970s
• Jarl Kulle (1927–1997), leading actor and musical theatre actor; 1950s-1990s.
• Anita Björk (b. 1923), leading lady, from 1940s-2000s; over 100 parts since 1943
• Stellan Skarsgård (b. 1951), leading actor excelling in classic plays from 1972–88

See also[link]

• Stockholm City Theatre (Stockholms stadsteater)
• Gothenburg City Theatre (Göteborgs stadsteater)
• Malmö City Theatre (Malmö stadsteater)
• Helsingborg City Theatre (Helsingborgs stadsteater)
• Riksteatern (~The National Touring Theatre Company)
• Västernorrland Region Theatre (Teater Västernorrland)
• Gävleborg Region Theatre (Länsteatern i Gävleborg)

References[link]

• Georg Nordensvan, "Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar; Första bandet, 1773-1842." (Swedish),(Swedish Theatre and Swedish actors from the days of Gustav III to our days, First book, 1772-1842.")
• Georg Nordensvan, "Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar; Andra bandet, 1842-1918." (Swedish),(Swedish Theatre and Swedish actors from the days of Gustav III to our days, Second book, 1842-1918.")

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern

• DRAMATEN - The Royal Dramatic Theatre (official website)
• Dramaten's current repertoire.

Coordinates: 59°20′00″N 18°04′37″E / 59.3333333°N 18.07694°E / 59.3333333; 18.07694

Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman during production of Wild Strawberries (1957).
Born	Ernst Ingmar Bergman (1918-07-14)14 July 1918 Uppsala, Sweden
Died	30 July 2007(2007-07-30) (aged 89) Fårö, Sweden
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1944–2005
Influenced by	August Strindberg[1] Victor Sjöström[2] Akira Kurosawa[2] Federico Fellini[2] Marcel Carné[2]
Spouse	Else Fisher (m. 1943–1945) Ellen Lundström (m. 1945–1950) Gun Grut (m. 1951–1959) Käbi Laretei (m. 1959–1969) Ingrid von Rosen (m. 1971–1995)
Awards	Goethe Prize

Ernst Ingmar Bergman (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋmar ˈbærjman] ( listen); 14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera," he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and influential film directors of all time.^[3]

He directed over sixty films and documentaries for cinematic release and for television, most of which he also wrote. He also directed over one hundred and seventy plays. Among his company of actors were Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the landscape of Sweden. His major subjects were death, illness, faith, betrayal, and insanity.

Bergman was active for more than six decades. In 1976 his career was seriously threatened as the result of a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion. Outraged, Bergman suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years.

Early life[link]

A young Bergman

Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the son of Erik Bergman, a Lutheran minister and later chaplain to the King of Sweden, and Karin Akerblom, a nurse.^[4] He grew up with his older brother Dag and sister Margareta surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a conservative parish minister with strict parenting concepts. Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for "infractions" like wetting the bed. "While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed, sang, or listened", Ingmar wrote in his autobiography Laterna Magica:

"I devoted my interest to the church’s mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity, the colored sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls. There was everything that one’s imagination could desire — angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans."

Although raised in a devout Lutheran household, Bergman later stated that he lost his faith at age eight, and only came to terms with this fact while making Winter Light.^[5] Bergman's interest in theatre and film began early: "At the age of 9, he traded a set of tin soldiers for a magic lantern, a possession that altered the course of his life. Within a year, he had created, by playing with this toy, a private world in which he felt completely at home, he recalled. He fashioned his own scenery, marionettes, and lighting effects and gave puppet productions of Strindberg plays in which he spoke all the parts."^[6][7]

In 1934, aged 16, he was sent to Germany to spend the summer vacation with family friends. He attended a Nazi rally in Weimar at which he saw Adolf Hitler.^[8] He later wrote in Laterna Magica (The Magic Lantern) about the visit to Germany, describing how the German family had put a portrait of Adolf Hitler on the wall by his bed, and that "for many years, I was on Hitler's side, delighted by his success and saddened by his defeats".^[9] Bergman did two five-month stretches of mandatory military service.

In 1937, he entered Stockholm University College (later renamed Stockholm University), to study art and literature. He spent most of his time involved in student theatre and became a "genuine movie addict".^[10] At the same time, a romantic involvement led to a break with his father that lasted for years. Although he did not graduate, he wrote a number of plays, as well as an opera, and became an assistant director at a theater. In 1942, he was given the chance to direct one of his own scripts, Caspar's Death. The play was seen by members of Svensk Filmindustri, which then offered Bergman a position working on scripts. In 1943, he married Else Fisher.

Career[link]

Film work[link]

Bergman's film career began in 1941 with his rewriting of scripts, but his first major accomplishment was in 1944 when he wrote the screenplay for Torment/Frenzy (Hets), a film directed by Alf Sjöberg. Along with writing the screenplay, he was also given position as assistant director to the film. In his second autobiographical work, Images: My Life in Film, Bergman describes the filming of the exteriors as his actual film directorial debut.^[11] The international success of this film led to Bergman's first opportunity to direct a year later. During the next ten years, he wrote and directed more than a dozen films including The Devil's Wanton/Prison (Fängelse) in 1949 and The Naked Night/Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton) and Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika), both from 1953.

Bergman first achieved worldwide success with Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955), which won for "Best poetic humor" and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes the following year. This was followed by The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) and Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället), released in Sweden ten months apart in 1957. The Seventh Seal won a special jury prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman and its star, Victor Sjöström. Bergman continued to be productive for the next two decades. From the early 1960s, he spent much of his life on the Swedish island of Fårö, where he made several films.

In the early 1960s he directed three films that explored the theme of faith and doubt in God, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en Spegel – 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna – 1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden – 1963). Critics created the notion that the common themes in these three films represented trilogy or cinematic triptych. Bergman initially responded that he did not plan these three films as a trilogy and that he could not see any common motifs in them, but he later seemed to have adopted the notion, with some equivocation.^[12][13] In 1964 he made a parody of Fellini with All These Women.^[14]

In 1966, he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important works. While the shockingly experimental film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan – 1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen – 1968), Shame (Skammen – 1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion – 1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish television at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap – 1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten – 1975).

After his arrest in 1976 for tax evasion, Bergman swore he would never again make films in Sweden. He shut down his film studio on the island of Fårö and went into self-imposed exile. He briefly considered the possibility of working in America and his next film, The Serpent's Egg (1977) was a German-U.S. production and his second English-language film (the first being 1971's "The Touch"). This was followed a year later with a British-Norwegian co-production of Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten – 1978) starring Ingrid Bergman. The one other film he directed was From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten – 1980) a British-German co-production.

In 1982, he temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander). Bergman stated that the film would be his last, and that afterwards he would focus on directing theatre. Since then, he wrote several film scripts and directed a number of television specials. As with previous work for TV, some of these productions were later released in theatres. The last such work was Saraband (2003), a sequel to Scenes from a Marriage and directed by Bergman when he was eighty-four years old.

Repertory company[link]

Bergman developed a personal "repertory company" of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly cast in his films, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Bengt Ekerot, Anders Ek and Gunnar Björnstrand, each of whom appeared in at least five Bergman features. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who appeared in nine of Bergman's films and one televisual film (Saraband), was the last to join this group (in the 1966 film Persona), and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. They had a daughter together, Linn Ullmann (born 1966).

Ingmar Bergman with his long time cinematographer Sven Nykvist during the production of Through a Glass Darkly (1960)

A great number of Bergman's interior scenes were filmed at the Filmstaden studios north of Stockholm.

Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed. On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work lacking interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.

Financing[link]

By Bergman's own account, he never had a problem with funding. He cited two reasons for this: one, that he did not live in the United States, which he viewed as obsessed with box-office earnings; and two, that his films tended to be low-budget affairs.^{[citation needed]} (Cries and Whispers, for instance, was finished for about $450,000, while Scenes from a Marriage, a six-episode television feature, cost only $200,000.)^[15]

Technique[link]

Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully constructed and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intention, he would let them, noting that the results were often "disastrous" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue. When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotive, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be reshot.^[15]

Subjects[link]

Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and religious faith. While these topics could seem cerebral, sexual desire found its way to the foreground of most of his films, whether the setting was a medieval plague (The Seventh Seal), upper-class family activity in early twentieth century Uppsala (Fanny and Alexander) or contemporary alienation (The Silence). His female characters are usually more in touch with their sexuality than the men, and unafraid to proclaim it, sometimes with breathtaking overtness (e.g., Cries and Whispers) as would define the work of "the conjurer," as Bergman called himself in a 1960 Time Magazine cover story.^[16] In an interview with Playboy in 1964, he said: "...The manifestation of sex is very important, and particularly to me, for above all, I don't want to make merely intellectual films. I want audiences to feel, to sense my films. This to me is much more important than their understanding them." Film, Bergman said, was his demanding mistress.^{[citation needed]}

Bergman's views on his career[link]

Bergman and actress Ingrid Thulin during the production of The Silence (1963)

When asked about his films, Bergman said he held Winter Light,^[17] Persona, and Cries and Whispers in the highest regard, though in an interview in 2004, Bergman said that he was "depressed" by his own films and could not watch them anymore.^[18] In these films, he said, he managed to push the medium to its limit. Bergman stated on numerous occasions (for example in the interview book Bergman on Bergman) that The Silence meant the end of the era in which religious questions were a major concern of his films.

Theatrical work[link]

Although Bergman was universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he was also an active and productive stage director all his life. During his studies at Stockholm University, he became active in its student theatre, where he made a name for himself early on. His first work after graduation was as a trainee-director at a Stockholm theatre. At twenty-six years, he became the youngest theatrical manager in Europe at the Helsingborg City Theatre. He stayed at Helsingborg for three years and then became the director at Gothenburg city theatre from 1946 to 1949.

He became director of the Malmö city theatre in 1953 and remained for seven years. Many of his star actors were people with whom he began working on stage, and a number of people in the "Bergman troupe" of his 1960s films came from Malmö's city theatre (Max von Sydow, for example). He was the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1960 to 1966 and manager from 1963 to 1966, where he began a long-time collaboration with choreographer Donya Feuer.

After Bergman left Sweden because of the tax evasion incident, he became director of the Residenz Theatre of Munich, Germany (1977–84). He remained active in theatre throughout the 1990s and made his final production on stage with Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2002. A complete list of Bergman's work in theatre can be found under "Stage Productions and Radio Theatre Credits" at Ingmar Bergman filmography.

Tax evasion charges[link]

On 30 January 1976, while rehearsing August Strindberg's Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, he was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income tax evasion. The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating. He suffered a nervous break-down as a result of the humiliation and was hospitalized in a state of deep depression.

The investigation was focused on an alleged 1970 transaction of 500,000 Swedish kronor (SEK) between Bergman's Swedish company Cinematograf and its Swiss subsidiary Persona, an entity that was mainly used for the paying of salaries to foreign actors. Bergman dissolved Persona in 1974 after having been notified by the Swedish Central Bank and subsequently reported the income. On 23 March 1976, the special prosecutor Anders Nordenadler dropped the charges against Bergman, saying that the alleged crime had no legal basis, saying it would be like bringing "charges against a person who has stolen his own car, thinking it was someone else's".^[19] Director General Gösta Ekman, chief of the Swedish Internal Revenue Service, defended the failed investigation, saying that the investigation was dealing with important legal material and that Bergman was treated just like any other suspect. He expressed regret that Bergman had left the country, hoping that Bergman was a "stronger" person now when the investigation had shown that he had not done any wrong.^[20]

Even though the charges were dropped, Bergman became disconsolate, fearing he would never again return to directing. Despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, high public figures, and leaders of the film industry, he vowed never to work again in Sweden. He closed down his studio on the island of Fårö, suspended two announced film projects, and went into self-imposed exile in Munich, Germany. Harry Schein, director of the Swedish Film Institute, estimated the immediate damage as ten million SEK (kronor) and hundreds of jobs lost.^[21]

Return[link]

Although he continued to operate from Munich, by mid-1978 Bergman had overcome some of his bitterness toward the government of Sweden. In July of that year he visited Sweden, celebrating his sixtieth birthday at Fårö, and partly resumed his work as a director at Royal Dramatic Theatre. To honor his return, the Swedish Film Institute launched a new Ingmar Bergman Prize to be awarded annually for excellence in filmmaking.^[22]

Still, he remained in Munich until 1984. In one of the last major interviews with Bergman, conducted in 2005 at Fårö Island, Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life.^[23]

Bergman retired from filmmaking in December 2003. He had hip surgery in October 2006 and was making a difficult recovery. He died peacefully in his sleep,^[24] at his home on Fårö, on 30 July 2007, at the age of eighty-nine,^[25] the same day that another renowned film director, Michelangelo Antonioni, also died. He was buried on the island on 18 August 2007 in a private ceremony. A place in the Fårö churchyard was prepared for him under heavy secrecy. Although he was buried on the island of Fårö, his name and date of birth were inscribed under his wife's name on a tomb at Roslagsbro churchyard, Norrtälje Municipality, several years before his death.

On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Bergman's portrait will feature on the new 200 kronor banknote, beginning in 2014–15.^[26]

Unrealised projects[link]

When Bergman died, a large archive of notes was donated to the Swedish Film Institute. Among the notes are several unpublished and unfinished scripts both for stage and films, and many more ideas for works in different stages of development. A never performed play has the title Kärlek utan älskare ("Love without lovers"), and has the note "Complete disaster!" written on the envelope; the play is about a director who disappears and an editor who tries to complete a work he has left unfinished. Other canceled projects include the script for a pornographic film which Bergman abandoned since he did not think it was alive enough, a play about a cannibal, some loose scenes set inside a womb, a film about the life of Jesus, a film about The Merry Widow, and a play with the title Från sperm till spöke ("From sperm to spook").^[27] The Swedish director Marcus Lindeen went through the material, and inspired by Kärlek utan älskare he took samples from many of the works and turned them into a play, titled Arkivet för orealiserbara drömmar och visioner ("The archive for unrealisable dreams and visions"). Lindeen's play premiered on 28 May 2012 at the Stockholm City Theatre.^[27]

Family[link]

The grave of Ingmar Bergman and his last wife, Ingrid von Rosen

Bergman was married five times:

• 25 March 1943 – 1945, to Else Fisher, choreographer and dancer (divorced). Children:
  • Lena Bergman, actress, born 1943.
• 22 July 1945 – 1950, to Ellen Lundström, choreographer and film director (divorced). Children:
  • Eva Bergman, film director, born 1945,
  • Jan Bergman, film director (1946–2000), and
  • twins Mats and Anna Bergman, both actors and film directors and born in 1948.
• 1951 – 1959, to Gun Grut, journalist (divorced). Children:
  • Ingmar Bergman Jr, airline captain, born 1951.
• 1959 – 1969, to Käbi Laretei, concert pianist (divorced). Children:
  • Daniel Bergman, film director, born 1962.
• 11 November 1971 – 20 May 1995, to Ingrid von Rosen (maiden name Karlebo) (widowed). Children:
  • Maria von Rosen, author, born 1959.

The first four marriages ended in divorce, while the last ended when his wife Ingrid died of stomach cancer in 1995, aged 65. Aside from his marriages, Bergman had romantic relationships with actresses Harriet Andersson (1952–55), Bibi Andersson (1955–59), and Liv Ullmann (1965–70). He was the father of writer Linn Ullmann with Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children, one of whom predeceased him. Bergman was eventually married to all of the mothers except Liv Ullmann, but his daughter with his last wife, Ingrid von Rosen, was born twelve years before their marriage.

Influence[link]

Many filmmakers have praised Bergman and cited his work as a major influence on their own:

• Woody Allen^[28] referred to Bergman as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera."^[29]
• Pedro Almodóvar^[30]
• Robert Altman^[31]
• Olivier Assayas^[32]
• Francis Ford Coppola^[33] stated: "My all-time favorite because he embodies passion, emotion and has warmth."
• Guillermo del Toro stated: "Bergman as a fabulist—my favorite—is absolutely mesmerizing."^[34]
• Asghar Farhadi^[35]
• Todd Field^[36] stated: "He was our tunnel man building the aqueducts of our cinematic collective unconscious."
• Krzysztof Kieślowski^[37] stated: "This man is one of the few film directors—perhaps the only one in the world—to have said as much about human nature as Dostoevsky or Camus."
• Stanley Kubrick^[38] stated: "I believe Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."
• Ang Lee stated: "For me the filmmaker Bergman is the greatest actor of all..."^[39]
• François Ozon^[32]
• Park Chan-wook^[32]
• Éric Rohmer stated: "The Seventh Seal is 'the most beautiful film ever."^[32]
• Marjane Satrapi^[32]
• Mamoru Oshii^[40]
• Paul Schrader stated: "I would not have made any of my films or written scripts such as Taxi Driver had it not been for Ingmar Bergman. What he has left is a legacy greater than any other director. I think the extraordinary thing that Bergman will be remembered for, other than his body of work, was that he probably did more than anyone to make cinema a medium of personal and introspective value."^[41]
• Martin Scorsese stated: "I guess I'd put it like this: if you were alive in the 50s and the 60s and of a certain age, a teenager on your way to becoming an adult, and you wanted to make films, I don't see how you couldn't be influenced by Bergman. You would have had to make a conscious effort, and even then, the influence would have snuck through."^[42]
• Steven Spielberg stated: "His love for the cinema almost gives me a guilty conscience."^[43]
• Andrei Tarkovsky^[44] held Bergman in very high regard, noting him and Robert Bresson as his two favourite filmmakers, stating "I am only interested in the views of two people: one is called Bresson and one called Bergman." Such was Bergman's influence, Tarkovsky's last film was made in Sweden with Sven Nykvist, Bergman's longtime cinematographer, and several of Bergman's favoured actors including Erland Josephson. Bergman likewise had great respect for Tarkovsky, stating; "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest director."^[45]
• André Téchiné^[32]
• Liv Ullmann^[46]

Filmography[link]

Popular culture[link]

An Ingmar Bergman-themed parody spoofs the allegory of cheating death (Bergman's The Seventh Seal) in the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live season 1: ep.23 (7/24/1976). The sketch, titled Swedish Movie, is somberly narrated in the third-person by a Swedish-speaking Death (Tom Schiller), English subtitles scrolling. The baleful voice-over dialogue, revealed to be emanating from the apparition of Death personified, imposes upon dreamily preoccupied lovers Sven (Chevy Chase) and Inger (Louise Lasser) who send a not-so-silently jeering Death out for pizza.

See also The Dove http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dove_(1968_film)

Awards[link]

Academy Awards[link]

In 1971, Bergman received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The list of his nominations and awards follows:

• Won: Best Foreign Film The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)^[47]
• Won: Best Foreign Film Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961)^[48]
• Won: Best Foreign Film Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1957)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay Through a Glass Darkly (1961)^[48]
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Picture, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Director, Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1974)
• Nominated: Best Director, Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte) (1977)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) (1979)
• Nominated: Best Original Screenplay, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)
• Nominated: Best Director, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983)

BAFTA Awards[link]

• Nominated: Best Film from any Source, The Magician (Ansiktet) (1960)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1984)

Berlin Film Festival[link]

• Won: Golden Bear for Best Film, Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1957)^[49]
• Nominated: Golden Bear for Best Film, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961)
• Won: OCIC Prize, Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

Cesar Awards[link]

• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) (1976)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film, Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) (1979)
• Won: Best Foreign Film, Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1984)
• Nominated: Best European Film, Saraband (2005)

Cannes Film Festival[link]

• Won: Best Poetic Humor Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955)
• Nominated: Golden Palm Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) (1955)
• Won: Jury Special prize The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
• Nominated: Golden Palm The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)
• Won: Best Director Brink of Life (Nära livet) (1958)
• Nominated: Golden Palm Brink of Life (Nära livet) (1958)
• Won: Special Mention The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)
• Nominated: Golden Palm The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960)
• Won: Technical Grand Prize Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop) (1972)
• Won: Palm of Palms (1997)
• Won: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (1998) (Special award for his whole works.)

Golden Globe Awards[link]

• Won: Best Foreign Film Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) (1960)
• Won: Best Foreign Film The Virgin Spring (1961)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Scenes from a Marriage (1975)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Face to Face (1976)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Autumn Sonata (1978)
• Won: Best Foreign Film Fanny and Alexander (1984)

• Nominated: Best Foreign Film Shame (1968)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Film Cries and Whispers (1973)

Other awards and honors[link]

• Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961)^[50]
• The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (1995)^[51]

See also[link]

• Cinema of Sweden
• List of film collaborations

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman. By Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, and Jonas Sima; Translated by Paul Britten Austin. Simon & Schuster, New York. Swedish edition copyright 1970; English translation 1973.
• Filmmakers on filmmaking: the American Film Institute seminars on motion pictures and television (edited by Joseph McBride). Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1983.
• Images: my life in film, Ingmar Bergman, Translated by Marianne Ruuth. New York, Arcade Pub., 1994, ISBN 1-55970-186-2
• The Magic Lantern, Ingmar Bergman, Translated by Joan Tate New York, Viking Press, 1988, ISBN 0-670-81911-5

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ingmar Bergman

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ingmar Bergman

• Ingmar Bergman at the Internet Movie Database
• Ingmar Bergman at the Swedish Film Database
• Ingmar Bergman at the TCM Movie Database
• Ingmar Bergman Face to Face
• The Ingmar Bergman Foundation
• Ingmar Bergman all posters
• Bergmanorama: The magic works of Ingmar Bergman
• The Guardian/NFT interview with Liv Ullmann by Shane Danielson, 23 January 2001
• Bergman talks of his dreams and demons in rare interview, by Xan Brooks, The Guardian, 12 December 2001
• Bergman Week
• Regilexikon
• DVDBeaver's Director's Chair on Bergman, with links to DVD and Blu-ray comparisons of his major films

Bibliographies

• Ingmar Bergman Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• Ingmar Bergman Site
• Collection of interviews with Bergman

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Piotr Giro (Piotr Torzawa Giro) born January 16, 1974 is a Swedish freelance actor, dancer and choreographer. Giro was born in Wałbrzych, Poland and moved with his mother to Sweden at the age of seven. In 1993 he began training at the Royal Swedish Ballet school in Stockholm, 1996 he joined the Batsheva dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel led by artistic director Ohad Naharin. In 1998 he joined the Ultima Vez dance company led by Wim Vandekeybus based in Brussels, Belgium. Ultima Vez and Wim Vandekeybus has launched the company into a new stage. The company is made up of individually unique dancers and actors from Belgium and abroad. Giro has worked as an actor at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Gothenburg Municipal Theatre and Stockholm Municipal Theatre.

Filmography[link]

• 2009 - Mannen under trappan
• 2009 - Olof 1440 min
• 2007 - The Blueberry War
• 2006 - Keillers Park
• 2006 - Wellkåmm to Verona
• 2004 - Graveyard Iland
• 2003 - Five Staircases
• 2003 - Skeppsholmen
• 2002 - Mantra
• 2001 - In Spite of Wishing and Wanting
• 2000 - Inasmuch
• 1999 - The last words

Theatrework[link]

• 2009 - Unknown Pleasures dancetheatre^[1] Putervik and Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Sweden 2009, touring in Sweden 2010, 2011)
• 2008 - King Edward The Second by Christopher Marlowe Unga Klara / Stockholm Municipaltheatre
• 2006 - Momo, also known as The Grey Gentlmen or The Men in Grey by Michael Ende Skärholmen / Stockholm Municipaltheatre
• 2005 - As Don Juan, Don Juan by Molière Gothenburg Municipaltheatre
• 2004 - The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighiere rewritten by Niklas Rådström Ghothenburg Municipaltheatre
• 2003 - As Romeo, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden

Dancework[link]

• 2010 - Equal (Shintaro Oue, Piotr Giro, Satoshi Kudo)
• 2008 - Triptych (Örjan Andersson)^[2]
• 2008 - Spiegel (Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus)^[3]
• 2000 - Inasmuch as Life is borrowed (Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus
• 2001 - In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus)
• 2000 - L'Anatomie du fauve (Josef Nadj)^[4]
• 1997 - Batsheva Dance Ensemble/Ohad Naharin/Batsheva Dance Company^[5]
• 1997 - Deuce (Carl-Olof Berg) A Project in April 1997^[6]
• 1998 - ÄETT (Carl-Olof Berg) A Project in April 1998
• 1998 - Norrdans (Jens Östberg, Jo Strømgren) guest performer

References[link]

"Piotr Giro" (in Swedish). Swedish Film Institute. http://www.sfi.se/sv/svensk-filmdatabas/Item/?type=PERSON&itemid=324628. Retrieved 12 May 2010. 

External links[link]

• Piotr Giro at the Internet Movie Database
• Reich-szyber.com
• Piotr Giro at Youtube
• Piotr Giro at Youtube
• Ultima vez web site
• Josefnadj.com
• Batsheva dance company web site
• Dansalliansen.se
• Ifilm.nu
• Angelin Preljocaj web site

Ann-Sofi Sidén is a contemporarty Swedish artist.^[1] She had a traditional education and started out as a painter. She expanded into other mediums, including video, film, performance and sculpture.^[2] Sidén's styles and themes do not fit easy categorization.^[3]

The Queen of Mud[link]

Sidén's early works center around a fictional character of her own creation, the "Queen of Mud", or QM. The creature is played by Sidén herself, and is the subject of numerous videos and films made in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The most notable aspects of the character are that she is naked, and covered in mud. In 1989, she walked into NK, an exclusive department store in central Stockholm. The character went to the perfume counter and tested a Chanel perfume before being escorted out of the building by security guards^[4] The visit made headlines in the Stockholm evening press,^[5] and led to an appearance by Sidén on a Swedish TV talk show, Ikväll, hosted by Robert Aschberg.^[6]

QM's public appearances continued in 1992 when she walked through the Stockholm Art Fair in Sollentuna. Under the guise of looking for art to take with her on her imminent space travel, she engaged several gallerists in conversation, one of whom assisted in reapplying mud on her body.

The QM character played a lead-role in Sidén's 1997 film, QM, I Think I Call Her QM.

The QM character has her own museum, The QM Museum (2004), Sidén's 17-channel mixed media installation. The digital archive that is part of the museum contains over 4,000 articles, consisting of drawings, poems, videos, films, and sculptures that Sidén made about QM during her career.^[7]

It's By Confining One's Neighbor...[link]

In 1994, Sidén participated in a group show in New York called, "Who has enlarged this hole?" It took place on West 9th Street, in the brownstone where a retired psychiatrist named Alice E. Fabian had died some years before. Sidén deals with Fabian's remnants, including written journals, audio journals, books, polaroids, and strange markings on the walls. Fabian lived the last 20 years of her life alone, and she was convinced that she was the subject of surveillance. She used the tools of her trade to prove her case, collecting exhibits and evidence, clearly labeled and explained by Dr. Fabian, that built up her own case against purported FBI agents who "zap" her with electricity and bug her house.^[8][9] Sidén's participation in the group show was her work entitled, It's by Confining One's Neighbor that One is Convinced of One's Own Sanity, Part I (1994). The title is a play on a Dostoyevsky quote, "It is not by confining one's neighbor that one is convinced of one's own sanity."^[10][11]

Sidén continued working with the raw material collected from West 9th street for a number of years, focusing on madness as a creative power.^[12] The site-specific piece in New York was transformed into It's by Confining One's Neighbor that One is Convinced of One's Own Sanity, Part II (1995).^[13] The American psychiatric journals that were part of Fabian's library were used in, Would a Course of Deprol Have Saved van Gogh's Ear? (1996), where the pharmaceutical advertisements from the journal were put on display.

Sidén explains her own reaction to the advertisements that she found in the journal:

Glancing through some of the magazines it struck me that here was one of the most blatant forms of subliminal marketing. Flashy advertisements for psychiatric pharmaceutical products were mixed with serious scientific articles. The images in the advertisements often showed depressed women in their own homes, carrying such captions such as: 'She's too anxious to talk to you! For severe anxiety, SERAX (oxazepam) may well prove beneficial.' It occurred to me that exactly like religion, the psychiatric science--in spite of its very brief history--had its fair share of structurally implicated madness and violence connected to it.^[14]

QM, I Think I Call Her QM[link]

In 1997, Sidén made a 35-mm short film, QM, I Think I Call Her QM, directed by Sidén and Tony Gerber.^[15] The film merges the QM character with Alice Fabian. The film showed at the Carnegie International in 1999.^[16]

The film depicts a retired psychiatrist living alone, and one day finding a creature, QM, under her bed. She then investigates QM, subjecting her to tests and examinations.^[17] There are several possible readings of the relationship between the two characters, including mother/daughter, and alter-ego (QM is Ruth's "double"). In Sidén's own words:

If QM is a creation of Ruth she is then created by Ruth's words, her notes and studies. She is a physical manifestation of what is going on in Ruth's head or a sum of the dirt piled up in her apartment after years of confusion. What interests me in the Golem myth is definitely belief as the key to any vision, creation, theory. And also for us QM exists only if we believe in her.^[18]

Surveillance Installations[link]

Between 1997 and 2001, Sidén developed a series of video installations focused on surveillance and infrastructure. Day's Inn (1997) and Who Told The Chambermaid? (1998) show the inner-workings of a hotel on surveillance monitors mounted on a shelving system that includes towels, new toilet paper rolls, and other backroom items, suggesting that a hotel employee is spying on its guests. The camera views include the front desk, corridors, and storage closets, and they also go into the rooms, revealing dozens of guests involved in activities such as reading a newspaper, going to the bathroom, masturbating or having sex. Station 10 and Back Again (2001) repeats the formula, but uses a fire station instead of a hotel. The shelving system contains hoses and helmets, and the surveillance monitors show firemen eating, showering, sleeping, exercising and responding to an alarm. All three of these pieces are silent; their executions were all preceded by on-site research, during which Sidén lived on location.^[19] Who Told The Chambermaid? showed at the 1999 Venice Biennale.

Warte Mal![link]

In 1998, Sidén worked in Dubi, a small German-border town in the Czech Republic where prostitution is prevalent. She recorded interviews with pimps, police, clients and the prostitutes. The result is a 13-channel video installation, Warte Mal! (1999), which consists of a sequence of rooms, arranged in a town-like fashion, with monitors and projections showing the interviews. Also presented are the moments in between the interviews, where Sidén spends time with the girls and her translator, in the bars and on the street, and excerpts from a diary Sidén kept during her stays, revealing her own immediate observations on what she is witnessing.^{[20] [21][22]}

Fideicommissum[link]

For a group show at the Wanås Foundation in southern Sweden, Sidén made a bronze, self-portrait, fountain sculpture, Fideicommissum (2000). The statue is squatting on the grass and urinating.^{[23] [23]}

The title refers to the institution of Fideicommissum in Sweden, where the first born son inherits the familial state in the aristocratic class. The Wanås sculpture park is situated on the grounds of a 15th century castle, where this practice was in place for hundreds of years, and applies to the Wachtmeister family, who own the castle and instigated the sculpture park.

3 MPH[link]

In 2002, Sidén was an artist in residence at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas. For the residency, she made a journey on horse-back that lasted 25 days, and ended at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She recorded the trip on video, resulting on the work 3 MPH (2003), a title that refers to the average speed of her journey. The video installation is spread across 5 video screens, and shows Sidén on horseback, riding through towns, and the people she met along the way.^[24]

When asked about the "portrait" nature of 3 MPH, and the comparison to Robert Frank's The Americans, and the works of Walker Evans, Sidén responds:

I feel like 3 MPH is a completely new way of showing portraits of people. [...] 3 MPH was born out of a childish desire to ride on a horse, which in the modern world is regarded as an obsolete form of transportation, to the end of the world: NASA Ground Control at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston. From here the fastest modes of transportation are directed into new frontiers. 3 MPH is a kind of slow road movie where a constant movement from right to left displayed over 5 screens portrays the numerous people I met along my path, and a woman, myself, on a horse, making an anachronistic journey on the little piece of public land between the highway and the fences dividing large properties of open land in Texas. I made the ride in 2002, covering about 440 km in 25 days on a white appaloosa named Shaman. The sound of hoof beats on asphalt takes us from the black and Hispanic inner city of San Antonio, east to the modern all white suburbs of Houston. In between those two modern cities, the cowgirl figure blends in naturally along vast stretches of open cattle and farming landscape, riding through hidden towns that look like the source material for the legendary Western film sets that Hollywood now has torn down to make room for space film sets.^[25]

In Passing[link]

The German phenomenon known as the Baby Klappe is the subject of In Passing (2007). The 6-channel video piece shows a young girl dropping off her baby at a baby klappe, and follows her on her walk through the side streets of Berlin, simultaneously showing the doctors and nurses taking care of the abandoned baby.^[26]

In Passing is a spatially complex video work in which the viewer is encouraged to move through the installation in order to experience all parts of the narrative. On two monitors and four large projection screens, we follow parallel stories featuring the woman and the child after their separation at the hospital. As in many of her previous works, Ann-Sofi Sidén makes use of surveillance cameras. The black-and-white, documentary-feel images are interspersed with sequences in the style of cinéma vérité. In Sidén's works the viewer is not given an unambiguous image of right or wrong, cause and effect. She has the single narrative and the image split into a number of voices, situations, moments and stories. In Passing is equally much a calling into question of our human failings in the present moment, and a test of the strength of the bond between children and parents, the vulnerability of the abandoned, and the pain of separation.^[1]

Same Unknown (strains 1, 2 and 3)[link]

Sidén created the 4-channel video installation Same Unknown (2008) for the occasion of Fotografia Europea,^[27] in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She invited over 200 people to slide down a metallic pole, similar to the ones used in old firestations. The resulting video piece, with 4 large monitors mounted vertically in the windows of a multi-story building in Reggio Emilia, shows the participants sliding down the pole after announcing their name and place of birth.

The core idea for Same Unknown comes from some observations I made in a fire station in 2000. Emergency pole? Yes and no. The Moro reflex is present at birth, peaking in the first month of life and beginning to disappear around 2 months of age. A baby’s startled reaction, startled response an embrace reflex. After filming over 200 persons in Reggio Emilia the pole has become an axis around which life spirals down at different speeds, always into the same unknown. Who, where to and why? The fragility and brevity of life. A simple task that requires concentration and a sort of bravery. The video camera exposing details of body language and facial expressions of people of different ages and origins. Maybe it tells us something about vulnerability, about who they are, or want to be, even if only for a very brief moment.^[28]

For the occasion of the Venice Biennale in 2009, Sidén re-edited the material collected in Reggio Emilia for Same Unknown, added a sound score designed by Jonathan Bepler, and created the 9-channel video installation, Same Unknown (strains 1, 2 and 3). The three strains refer to the three poles that are mounted in the exhibition space. Each pole has three monitors.

My Country (Somewhere in Sweden)[link]

Sidén and a colleague at the Kungliga Konsthögskolan embarked on a 38-day, 720 km horseback ride from Stockholm to Wanås, in the south of Sweden, in the fall of 2009. The journey was filmed and made into the 4-channel HD video installation, "My Country (Somewhere in Sweden)".

Curtain Callers[link]

Sidén and composer Jonathan Bepler collaborated on "Curtain Callers" from 2009 - 2011, during which time they filmed and recorded sounds at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. The result was a single-channel film, "Curtain Callers" and a 5-channel HD video installation, called "Curtain Callers (Entracte)." Both works employ the right-to-left panning motion that Sidén used in earlier works. The material consists of the backstage process of a working theater, including stage hands, cleaners, actors rehearsing in dressing rooms, and script read-throughs; also included in the material is a live event held at the Royal Dramatic Theater in April, 2010, when over 600 choir members in and around Stockholm were invited to sit as audience members and perform under the conducting of Bepler. The projects were produced by Mobile Art Production (MAP).

Exhibitions[link]

• 1997 Steiricher Herbst, Graz, Austria
• 1998 Manifesta 2, Luxemburg
• 1998 XXIV Bienal de São Paulo, São Paolo, Brasil
• 1999 Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria
• 1999 Venice Biennale, Italy
• 1999 Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, USA
• 2000 Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, USA
• 2000 Nordhorn, Germany
• 2000 Villa Arson, Nice, France
• 2001 Kunst Haus Dresden, Germany
• 2001 Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
• 2002 Art Pace, San Antonio, Texas, USA
• 2002 Hayward Gallery, London, England
• 2002 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
• 2002 Biennale of Sydney, Australia
• 2004 Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
• 2004 Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2004 Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
• 2004 Biennale of Sydney, Australia
• 2004 Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, USA
• 2005 Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
• 2005 MASS Moca, North Adams, Massachusetts, USA
• 2005 Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
• 2006 P.S.1, Queens, New York & KunstWerke, Berlin, Germany
• 2006 Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
• 2006 Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany
• 2007 MARCO, Vigo, Spain,
• 2007 Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain
• 2007 Fotomuseum Winterhur, Zürich, Switzerland
• 2009 Venice Biennale, Italy
• 2010 Moderna Utställning, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2011 Freud Museum, A View From Outside -- Reloaded, Vienna, Austria
• 2011 Curtain Callers, Royal Dramatic Theater, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2011 Curtain Callers (Entracte), Västra Stallet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2011 Curtain Callers, The Gothenburg Film Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden

Notes[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Press release for Sidén's solo show at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2. ^ Lind, I: "Ann-Sofi Sidén" page 23. "Distant Lighthouses", Tango - edicão e design, Ida, 1998, ISBN 972-96966-2-4
3. ^ Lind, M.: "Ann-Sofi Sidén, Peeping on the Chambermaid" page 121. Flash Art, Summer 1999
4. ^ Allerholm, M: 1994, "The Violence of Everyday Life", Index nr 3-4/94, page 78
5. ^ Larsson, A: "Ann-Sofi stormar naken in på NK" Aftonbladet 1989, page 22-23
6. ^ Arrhenius, S: 1996, "A Mud Queen as TV Star", Index 1.96, page 75-76
7. ^ Glueck, G: "The Line Between Species Shifts, and a Show Explores the Move", Art Review for 'Becoming Animal' at MASS Moca, The New York Times, August 26, 2005, Arts section
8. ^ Sidén, A: "No. 144," 1995, New York, ISBN 91-972324-1-6
9. ^ Lind, I: "Ann-Sofi Sidén" page 22. "Distant Lighthouses", Tango - edicão e design, Ida, 1998, ISBN 972-96966-2-4
10. ^ Dostoyevsky, F: Diary of a Writer
11. ^ Foucault, M, Howard, R, Cooper, D: Madness and Civilization, 2001, Page xi, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25385-3, ISBN 978-0-415-25385-7
12. ^ Birnbaum, D: "Cumulus/Where has all the madness gone?" page 279-284. Parkett, 50/51, 1997
13. ^ Rossholm-Lagerlöf, M: 1996, "7 Easy Pieces", Index 1.96, page 83-84
14. ^ Siden, A: No. 144, It's by Confining One's Neighbor that One is Convinced of One's Own Sanity, 1995, Preface, Utica Publishing, Stockholm, ISBN 91-972324-1-6
15. ^ See Gerber's IMDB entry
16. ^ Smith, R: "Safe Among the Seamless Shadows in Pittsburgh", The New York Times, November 17, 1999, page E6
17. ^ Lind, I: "Ann-Sofi Sidén" page 20. "Distant Lighthouses", Tango - edicão e design, Ida, 1998, ISBN 972-96966-2-4
18. ^ Russ, S: "QM Online," interview with the artist, Around Us, Inside Us, Centraltryckeriet, Borås, 1997, ISBN 91-630-5408-6
19. ^ Volk, G: "Hypnotic Patience: Station 10 and Back Again", "Ann-Sofi Sidén: The Panning Eye Revisited" Paris Musées, 2001, ISBN 2-87900-566-3
20. ^ Ledo, A: Year? "The tricks of the commonplace: Interview with Ann-Sofi Sidén", Lapiz 216 Num. 216
21. ^ Robert Fleck interview with the artist when the piece was shown in Cologne, Germany.
22. ^ van der Heeg, E: "Warte Mal!" Exhibition Catalogue from Secession, page 26, Secession, 1999, ISBN 3-901926-18-6
23. ^ ^{a b} Volk, G: 2000 "On Ann-Sofi Sidéns 'Fideicommisum' [sic]", Camera Austria 72, page 97
24. ^ Ledo, A: Year? "The tricks of the commonplace: Interview with Ann-Sofi Sidén", page 40, Lapiz 216 Num. 216
25. ^ Ledo, A: Year? "The tricks of the commonplace: Interview with Ann-Sofi Sidén", page 54, Lapiz 216 Num. 216
26. ^ Santos, J: "Moral of the Story", page 147, Fluid Street Exhibition Catalogue, F.G. Lönnberg, Helsinki 2008
27. ^ Fotografia Europea webpage
28. ^ Sidén: Press release for Fotografia Europea Reggio Emilia 2008

Bibliography[link]

• Sidén, Ann-Sofi, Ann-Sofi Siden : In Between The Best Of Worlds, Steidl, 2005, ISBN 3-86521-086-4 / 9783865210869
• Sidén, Ann-Sofi, Enquete : The Panning Eye Revisited 10 Mars-6 Mai 2001, Musee D'art Moderne De La Ville De Paris, Paris Musees, 2001, ISBN 2-87900-566-3 / 9782879005669
• Sidén, Ann-Sofi, Warte Mal! Prostitution After the Velvet Revolution, Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1-85332-225-3
• Sidén, Ann-Sofi, No. 144 It's By Confining One's Neighbor That One Is Convinced Of One's Own Sanity, Utica Publishing, 1995, ISBN 91-972324-1-6

External links[link]

• Ingela Lind review of "Curtain Callers" published in Dagens Nyheter 2011
• article on Sidén's nomination for Dagens Nyheter's cultural prize for 2011, published 2012
• Moderna Museet, Solo Show, 20.11.2004 - 20.3.2005
• Fotografia Europea Reggio Emilia 2008
• Review of Warte Mal! at the Hayward Gallery
• e-flux announcement of Bonniers opening
• Carnegie list of artists
• Ronald Jones article in Frieze magazine, 2005
• IMDB entry
• (video) Appearance on Austrian TV, Nov. 2010, about her work "In Passing"
• Short description of "My Country (Somewhere in Sweden)" at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2010