From Home to Here

A project by Anna Selander and Malin Skjöld, in collaboration with visitors to Stockholm’s Stadsmuseum. On the initiative of Index at Stockholm’s Stadsmuseum.

“From Home to Here” encourages museum visitors to describe, in text and images, their route through town, from home to Stockholm’s Stadsmuseum. The project is based on the annotated Stockholm maps of museum visitors. These maps, along with their filmed stories, make a series of each individual’s special experience of the city.

Often the most frequently seen maps of Stockholm are those printed in the phone book or in the subway, with the Central Station and City placed at the centre. It is the centre point of Sweden’s financial, political and administrative centre point, the official image of Stockholm, that provide our points of orientation as we move through the city, but also when we choose a place to live, work or go to school. It is an image that tangibly influences our everyday lives at many different levels.

From a historical point of view, maps are a privileged license of power. Whoever draws the borders and organises land also has power and overview, and a map is the obvious symbol of this system. Issues regarding where to place the centre and whose perspective this reflects are relevant to both a city and a museum. Stockholm’s Stadsmuseum is a place where Stockholm’s history is on display, as well as the increasingly complex age in which we live. The project places the museum’s visitors at the centre of attention. Taken together, their maps offer another image of Stockholm than that we are used to seeing, but with the same degree of relevance.

Pressetext

From Home to Here
A project by Anna Selander and Malin Skjöld