The Exclusion

2015 / 8 channel sound installation / Burnt ground and grass in a circle.

In the piece, The Exclusion, I want to explore the collective boundaries through laughter and wordless language. The laughter and the circle creates a stage in where I want to high-light the power struggle and ambivalence of being left out or kept in the society/collective. A laugh can be perceived pleasurable and inclusive and then a few minutes later the same laughter can be perceived as frightening and exclusive. The starting point for this work was a satirical joke about my mother in the book Fnitter – Even more giggles a fun book of Women from 1983, and the consequences of that joke. I was 9 years old at the time and I felt like the whole world was laughing at my mother for all eternity...

“Somewhere between running a gauntlet and a hys- terical burst of laughter. Where can the line be drawn between innocent laughter and oppressive mockery and what does this laughter mean?”
– Jonathan Habib Engqvist

Participants actors: Lena Carlsson, Anna Lyons, Patrik Bergner, Emma Brommé, Mathias Karlsson, Nanna Gauffin, Lars Bringås, Ewa Beverot and Joanna Lombard

Composition: Magnus Larsson

Sound design and recording: Jakob Munch, Munch Production