Discontent and the reason often occur at home, without the outside world's insight, notes Anna Odell. In the artwork now being premiered at Kalmars konstmuseum, she asks her six-year-old son if he wants to make a film with her. At first, the son thinks it's fun to be involved, but after a while, he gets tired, and the artist tries to persuade him.
Do we ourselves know how we use our power, but do we do it for the sake of the children or for our own sake? What do we do for the sake of society? I want to make this visible both for myself and for everyone else, and get us to stop and think, she says.
No documentary
When she has used herself in other works, Anna Odell has often returned to vulnerable positions from earlier in her life – now she turns and twists the parental role here and now, she says. Not that she has made a documentary, the film is not edited to give a flattering picture, on the contrary.
In a way, this is the hardest thing I've done because I'm working together with my own child. How should I handle it so that I don't expose him? I've made a film with my child, who sometimes thought it was hard, sometimes thought it was really fun. When should I stop?
Anna Odell and her son also use dolls that represent themselves.
Sometimes I carry both, sometimes he carries his own. We carry them around, it's also about how one carries the image of oneself, and on the other one wants to be.
Apunge
A few years ago, she saw a documentary about an experiment where an ape was given a teddy bear instead of its mother. The teddy bear mother became increasingly unpleasant in the documentary, and the little ape only became more eager to keep the teddy bear, Odell says.
It was as if the documentary wanted to say that when you have a connection to someone, that person can expose the child to so much, the child still has its loyalty turned towards the main person in their life.
”The Power and the Child” is shown at Kalmar konstmuseum from June 14 to November 16.
