Verklighetens folk
When Jimmie Åkesson chose to wear traditional Swedish clothing – folkdräkt – for the opening of the parliament in 2010, a debate concerning folkdräkter was started. What signals do you send out when you wear it? What thoughts are evoked? Folkdräkter can be a loaded subject where people have many different opinions and views of them. For many people, thoughts lead to nationalism, elitism, and conservative views.
This project took inspiration from this debate, and I wanted to give another perspective to it: the personal and historical connection many people have to the folkdräkt, and the clothing as a textile craft. This resulted in a stop motion short film where you follow a traditional dress from Orsa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries – from it being sewn, to the moment it is cut into rags to wash the floor. During this journey, you get to follow the life’s highs and lows of the characters surrounding the dress to create a more personal relationship and understanding of the traditional dress. Since the film centers around textile craft, it felt important that all props, environments, and clothing is made by hand. To avoid romanization of the folkdräkt, I chose to work with more everyday materials for the film, such as cardboard, clay and scrap fabric.
jhnn.bmn@gmail.com
