Swede Home
1966/1973/1975/2009
DV PAL video converted from 8mm film, color, sound, English commentary by Jan Edman
14 min 15 sec
Swede Home evolves from three reels of 8-mm film taken by Jan Edman (1928), a retired Swedish engineer who traveled to Iran nearly 15 times between 1966 and 1979 when master plans for modernization of the country were at the forefront.
The films obtained from Jan Edman in order to be used in the project are the following:
1966
Iran: work trip with Kampsax A/S, a Copenhagen-based mapping company to Tehran for the feasibility study of cold store at the Teheran Slaughterhouse, visits to cities of Amol and Anzali.
1973
Iran: work trip to Shiraz for the feasibility study and proposals for 1&1 canning company, visits to Persepolis and Tehran.
1975
Iran: work trip to Tehran for school milk project study accompanied by Jan’s family, visit to cities of Gorgan and Rasht.
Swede Home incorporates these three reels of Edman's films from Iran of the '60s and the '70s while Edman gives a commentary on his films some thirty years later where his memory and his visual documentation meet again.
On behalf of a Swedish consulting and engineering company and commissioned by various Iranian state-owned and private industries, he visited different Iranian cities for the purpose of realizing industrial projects. Edman is asked to give a commentary on his films some thirty years later when his memory and his visual documentation meet again.
* Swede Home is also the second chapter of Untitled (District Sixteen) 2010, a slide show that revisits Tehran slaughterhouse, one of the sites that Jan Edman was working on during his time in Iran.
Installation drawing, Swede Home & Untitled (District Sixteen) together
© 2007-2011 Shirin Sabahi