cinema obscura

 

 

 

 

cinema obscura, camera obscura house, 2005-2006. Installed and built for the first time 2005 in the schoolyard of Malmö

Art Academy. The house was standing there during the week of the schools annual exhibition. Since the summer of 2006

permanently placed in the woods near the small village of Bygget in the Swedish province of Halland.

 

 

 

 

View inside the cinema obscura when placed in the schoolyard.

(the light has projected an upside down and mirrored image of what is outside.)

 

 

 

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There is a small house, all on its own, in the woods near the small village of Bygget in the Swedish province of Halland.

The house is called cinema obscura, and works just like a camera obscura. A small path leads you from the old railway

track down to the house. It isn't that far from the village, but there are no signs to show the way. If you've heard the

story of the camera in the forest though, and have been told how to get there, it's not hard to find.

 

cinema obscura is at the edge of the woods, facing a bog. It is a quiet place. Sometimes there is a squirrel or two on

the roof. Inside the house, you can hear the branches of fir trees scraping against the walls. Birdsong drifts in during

the spring and summer.

 

Visitors can step through the small doorway, shut the door behind them and sit down on one of the two chairs inside.

Next, they wait for the light beams that enter through a small hole in the wall behind them, to make an image of

whatever is outside, on the white screen in front of them.

 

The picture seen is never the same. Weather, wind, light and darkness all add their own character. Strong daylight is

needed for a picture to appear at all. In the wintertime, it's sometimes hard to even see the image. Unless it has been

snowing. The contrast between the light outside and the darkness inside makes a difference. The picture displaying what

is outside is upside down and mirrored. Less sharp than reality, more etheral and picturesque. A different version.

A different picture.

 

 

 

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I built this house for the first time for the schools annual show in the spring of 2005. It was in a corner of the

courtyard outside, and its light grey exterior didn't grab your attention. It looked a bit like a weird shed that had

ended up in the wrong place. A little over a year later, with the extensive aid of my dear father and dear sister, the

house was erected in the forest where it remains to this day.

 

 

 

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cinema obscura in the woods and the path down to it.

 

 

 

 

cinema obscura, Installation view, Bygget, Sweden.

 

 

 

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See images from the cinema obscura: obscure still

 

 

 

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