AV JORD ÄR DU KOMMEN

Av jord är du kommen / Ashes to Ashes - Opening 26 April 2025

A mixed reality walk for cemeteries by Marika Hedemyr & Team

Researchers say they have finally found remnants of Theia, an ancient planet that collided with Earth and formed the moon. No other parts of the planet have been found in the solar system. A new theory suggests that remnants of Theia are partially intact and buried beneath our feet.

Av jord är du kommen (Ashes to Ashes) is a personal experience and meditation on how we are all part of common cycles, a reflection on the legacy we leave behind when we once in the future are part of the Earth as soil again. It’s a mixed reality walk for cemeteries that creates reflection and sensory experiences of how we and our mobile devices are interconnected in the Earth's material cycle. The format is site-specific public art that utilizes immersive media and mobile-based augmented reality (AR) technology as a performance format.

Premiere 26 April 2025 at Gamla Kyrkogården in Malmö.
Length: 50 min.
Available in Swedish and English, choose language on site.

Dates & Tickets Av jord är du kommen / Ashes to Ashes

At Gamla Kyrkogården, Malmö - Book your ticket at Kulturcentralen.nu
Saturday 26 April at 14:00 and 16:00.
Sunday 27 April at 14:00 and 16:00.
Monday 28 April at 18:30.
Thursday 22 May at 18:30.
Friday 23 May at 18:30
Saturday 24 May at 14:00 and 16:00.
Sunday 25 May at 14:00 and 16:00.

To experience the performance, book your ticket an please prepare:

1. Download the free app Meadow by Untold Garden from App Store or Google Play.

2. To the venue you bring with you: Charged phone, headphones and clothes according to the weather.

3. You meet Marika Hedemyr at the round opening with benches and the Milles sculpture, in the middle of the cemetery/park. Exact location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vWnbZ5U77jq8aJX18 

The performance is available in Swedish and English, you choose language on site. You walk at your own pace. Gamla kyrkogården is located in between Malmö Stadsbibliotek and Gustav Adolfs Torg, the address is Gustav Adolfs Torg 3, 211 39 Malmö.

Concept

A pressing issue today is how we manage the earth’s resources to create a sustainable future, and how we create respectful relationships for peaceful coexistence. In this work Marika Hedemyr tackles these issues artistically. The conceptual starting point is that the smallest ingredients that make up our mobile digital devices – minerals and matter that come from the earth, are also the building blocks of our human body. In such a perspective, the human body and the phone are one. This provides a perspective of infinity, geologic time, and recurring cycles of becoming. One of the few public places where the concrete relationship between bodies, earth and time can both be seen and felt, are cemeteries. They are a borderland between the dead and the living, between sadness and hope, between stillness and activity. In the project Marika explores ways in which a mixed reality performance could take place at a cemetary and be both an individual and a collective experience. The intended audience is adults and youth.

A recurring theme in Hedemyr’s practice is the relationship between the physical body and the body of society. In this work the body of the earth is also included. The project is part of the Element Series, a thematic strand of new mixed reality experiences that explore our co-existence with the planet earth through the elements earth, water, fire, and air. Av jord är du kommen is the first work in this series, addressing the element earth/soil.

Credits

Concept, script, artistic director: Marika Hedemyr
Performer: Marika Hedemyr
Creative Technologist: Jakob Skote, Untold Garden
Voice actor: Ann-Sofie Nurmi
Sound & sound production: Nille Perned
Sound artist: Helena Persson
Dramaturg: Maria Stålhammar
External eye: Francis Patrick Brady
Technology developed by: Untold Garden

Assisting producer/communication: Sara Svensson
Producer: Maria Stålhammar, Mary Steel Prod.

Thank you to: The staff at Gamla kyrkogården Malmö and Holmens kirkegård Copenhagen. Keith Lim.

Produced by: Marika Hedemyr Projects
Created in residencies and in collaboration with: Inter Arts Center (IAC), Metropolis Copenhagen, Danscentrum Syd, Untold Garden, STPLN:LAB.
With support by: Region Skåne Arts Council

Process

Region Skåne Arts Council finances the project through a development grant and a production grant.

2025
1 March - 26 April 2025, production period in Malmö

Maj 2024 - May 2025, STPLN:LAB supports the project with working space. Marika Hedemyr is selected participant in their art incubator program 2024 - 2025.

2024
July 2024, 1 month’s residency at Metropolis Copenhagen, international festival for art and performance in public space.

Friday 26 July 2024 at 14.30 at Holmens Kirkegård, Copenhagen: Presentation of a work-in-progress version. Meeting point:  At the entrance to Holmens Kirkegård next to the chapel, address Upsalagade 25, 2100 København. Part of the artistic residency program at the international festival Metropolis.

30 May 2024 at 17-19 (drop in) at Gamla Kyrkogården, Malmö: Public presentation of a work-in-progress version. At Gamla Kyrkogården, address Gustav Adolfs torg 3, 211 39 Malmö. Language: Swedish. We meet at the round opening with benches and the Milles sculpture, in the middle of the park. No need to sign up, just come by.

December 2023 - February 2024, visiting artist/researcher at Inter Arts Center (IAC) Malmö, which supports the project with studio and technology 2024. Marika Hedemyr is both visiting researcher at IAC while developing the pilot, and one of 11 selected artists in the program 123 Playtime.

2023
December 2023, 1 week residency at Danscentrum Syd, Malmö, part of their program Dans och Spel.