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Mikael Lindahl

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Mikael Lindahl

(Born 1983, works in Stockholm)

Foundation of a Building, 2010

Foundation, white paint, video, 10,43 mins

With support from Kjell och Märta Beijers Stiftelse, Kultur Skåne

The remains of foundations from tenant farms, crofts, and cottages are scattered around the grounds of the Wanås Estate. When Mikael Lindahl was preparing to create a project at Wanås, he became interested in these remnants of the past and was brought to a house foundation located along the road just outside the southern wall. Like an archaeologist, he cut back all of the foliage and scraped away the dirt that over the years had covered the foundation. A bare foundation emerged, probably looking similar to how it did when the house was built sometime in the 1600s or 1700s, and he then carefully painted it white. The result of the dig became Foundation of a Building, a video work that is now part of Wanås Konst’s collection. The work was carried out in conjunction with Lindahl’s participation in the project Another Way, which was a three-year collaboration between Wanås Konst and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. In the project, a group of students and teachers travelled from Stockholm to Wanås without using any fossil fuels – Lindahl biked to Wanås. Lindahl’s films ride the boundary between documentary and art film. He explores what the remains of past human activity can tell us today. Foundation of a Building brings attention to a past life on a farm with a residence, barn, and fruit trees. He reminds us of rural development over the past 100 years, in which small farms either were shut down in order to be folded into larger enterprises or completely disappeared, a process that is still happening today.