In the building I live in there are over 200 apartments that are mostly inhabited by people that are not ethnically Swedish. We have come here for different reasons and we also stay for very different reasons. Some of us are like me can pass as locals as long as we don’t open our mouths. Some have an ethnicities that could make you think that they are newcomers to the area, but instead their families have been living in the building for generations. The languages we speak are many and our Swedish has many intonations.

In 2023 I will interview my neighbours about the places they miss and the places they yearn for. I will ask them what they miss about those places. Maybe it is the sounds in the streets, the shape of a hill or the conversations with their favorite relative. In my case it is a forest that doesn’t exist anymore. The interviews will inform the material phase of the work that will be made 2024.

In this project I continue my research in to hope and how it takes part of forming futures. Hope is a future-oriented feeling that makes us strive now. It is a promise of something better and an enticing hook. It is a trixter that pendulates between different temporalities, only showing its true face through history. It also has connections to nostalgia. To the the things that once existed, that once were and what we earn to experience again.