The Story Machine by Alexander Rynéus and Being Right by David Torstensson

The films “Berättelsemaskinen” by Alexander Rynéus and “Att ha rätt” by David Torstensson will premiere during the triennial at various locations across Småland. At Kalmar Art Museum, they will be shown on a rolling schedule from September 2 – September 17.

Alexander RynéusThe Story Machine (2023) revolves around storytelling, delineation, sorting, and preservation through encounters with various people around Hylte municipality. A floating film that elevates the role of storytelling in a place where paper is produced for newspapers and their stories around the world through small events and vignettes from everyday life. A film that circulates around storytelling, delineation, sorting, and preservation through encounters with various people around Hylte municipality.

Alexander Rynéus' practice often centers on a place, but perhaps more importantly, on personal meetings with people and their lives in these places. By primarily using documentary film as a medium and method, he approaches the participants' individual stories while also examining the place in a broader historical context. He creates multifaceted depictions in communities that are amidst significant changes, and the projects are often the result of multi-year processes. Through the time perspective, he embeds himself in the films, and along with the viewers and participants, a broader narrative history is activated. There is also room for existential and local political layers, sometimes with a situationally based underlying humor.

In David Torstensson's essay filmTo Be Right (2023), a father's involvement in a small communist vanguard party is examined in relation to his free church family background. The film tests through a narrative voice how a theological perspective can contribute to reframing the father's political legacy. Two letters play a central role, where the father early in his engagement states thatto continue the fight, one must be strong, but that is not me. What forces drive the father's struggle and our narrative history forward? And what could it mean to pause at the point where our bodies urge us to do so?

To Be Rightforms one half of the two-part essay film project “For Late Arrival” which is based on individual examples of Christian and communist organizing in a Småland context. During the Småland Triennial, Torstensson is working on the project's other part, called the Reading Society, where he tests artistic and pedagogical strategies to measure closeness and distance to the revival movement known as the Åkianers. The movement is said to have collectivized their farms in the late 18th century to serve God full-time.

schedule for screenings September 2-17

TUESDAY – FRIDAY
12:10 To Be Right
12:45 The Story Machine
13:45 To Be Right
14:20 The Story Machine
15:20 To Be Right
15:55 The Story Machine

WEDNESDAY EVENING
16:55 To Be Right
17:30 The Story Machine
18:30 To Be Right
19:05 The Story Machine

SATURDAY - SUNDAY
11:05 The Story Machine
12:10 To Be Right
12:45 The Story Machine
13:45 To Be Right
14:20 The Story Machine
15:20 To Be Right