W I T C H E S
In the year of our Lord 1668, Satan's fury is unleashed in Sweden. Suddenly, women are accused of witchcraft and consorting with the devil. The king dispatches a witchcraft commission with the authority to mete out death sentences. The judgments begin to fall – and become the spark that ignites witch pyres across the country. »The great noise« has begun. And before it subsides, the axe and the fire will have extinguished nearly 300 women's lives.
This exhibition is currently being shown at Kalmar Castle.
In December 2024 it will open at the Historical Museum in Stockholm.
This immersive experience has received glowing reviews. The exhibition is approximately 700 square meters and the first historical exhibition in Sweden created with the help of AI. The artist Pompe Hedengren and the scenographer Erik Gullberg have created the exhibition. P3 Historia's founder, Cecilia Düringer, is the writer.
Through the exhibition's scenography, films, sculptures, and portraits, visitors come very close to the 300 women who lost their lives during the great commotion.
Contact us if you are interested in showing this exhibition.
The visitor steps into a small village outside Älvdalen on a dark August night in 1668. Gertrud Svensdotter has just walked on water in the eastern Dalälven, and the vicar Lars Elvius begins to interrogate her!
Step into an exhibition where both dream and truth coexist! What is recounted in words concerns real people who lived and events that took place in history – but the images are fantasies of the past. When the witch trials raged, there was no artist depicting life in the countryside. Nor was there a photographer – the modern camera wasn't invented until two hundred years later.
But what if we had images of the women who were condemned, the children who testified against them, and the men who judged them? How would those images look? Might the people perhaps emerge before us as living, thinking, feeling individuals?
Pompe Hedengren has portrayed the women, children, and men using artificial intelligence. Through the images he created, the events and myths of the Swedish witch trials, known as »The great noise« 1668–1676, are depicted.
Welcome to a truly unreal experience.
ARTISTS OF THE EXHIBITION
P O M P E H E D E N G R E N
Artist, director, editor
E R I K G U L L B E R G
Scenographer, exhibition design, producer
C E C I L I A D Ü R I N G E R
Lyricist
……
P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R S
Ameli Geben, Linnea Sällqvist
D I R E C T O R S O F P H O T O G R A P H Y
Sara Mac Key, Emilie Löfgren
M A G I C A L O B J E C T S Oskar Hejll
D E C O R Dekorverket
M U S I C Lasse Sander
S O U N D Mats Blomberg
B A N N E R S Big Image
A C T O R S
The Girl, Lovisa Samuelsson
The Boy, Frej Boswood Swanberg
C O U R T O F L A W
Rickard Friberg, Petter Hydén, Lennart Ploom, Jonas Beckman, Mikael Sommansson Richter
C O U R T O F L A W S C R I P T Lennart Ploom
C O S T U M E D E S I G N E R Kicki Ilander
C O L O R G R A D I N G Samuel Voigt Lind
V O I C E S
Lennart Mattsson, Tini Björs, Jörgen Hed, Jennie Andersson
T H A N K S T O
Johanna Bjelkengren, Annika Nordenskiöld, Hella Nathorst-Böös, Rosie Björkman, Jannica Honey, Rebecca Tiger, Mats Strandberg, Anders J Larsson, Anna Sundberg, Gabriel Isip
And of course, everyone from Kalmar Castle:
Meg Nömgård, Karin Mellbo, Karin Sågerås, Emelie Nilsson, Anna Wiklander, and the entire staff at the castle!