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FILM / INSTALLATION

Sunset/Sunrise 
(The Fairy Garden)


2025
Two-channel video installation, Mini DV and 4K with two-channel stereo sound, 9.20 mins, semi-transparent projection textile, wall colour (coral).
—Lent et grave.

One evening in 2001, Conny Karlsson Lundgren was capturing the sunset on a beach in Los Angeles. Long known as a cruising spot, the beach is an informal haven where LGBTQI+ people have gathered and carved out a safe space for themselves since the 1940s. With its coded search for casual erotic encounters in public places, cruising is a significant part of queer culture, but has more recently taken on other forms in the wake of digital apps and other developments. 

The two-channel video installation borrows a fragment from Le jardin féerique, a short piece by Maurice Ravel from the early 20th century. The original score was composed for two players sharing a piano, evoking the intimacy of two bodies seated side by side. In the new composition, made in collaboration with composer and artist Jesper Norda, the two voices of the piece are used in a call-and-response, echoing the coded ‘call and response’ of cruising culture. The voices of the composition are performed on the cello by Christoffer Berg, who embraces, listens and searches, allowing the instrument to become an entity. 

The title of the piece, which translates into English as ‘The Fairy Garden’, becomes a play on the word fairy, which has historically been used as a derogatory term for homosexual men, much like the Swedish words ‘fjolla’ or ‘bög’. The pixelated sunset seems to be suspended in a state of perpetual twilight, in a gap in time. The absence of bodies here may signal an ‘after’—as the aftermath of an erotic encounter, the aftermath of an epidemic, or the sense that the passing visitor has arrived too late.



Installation view, Sunset/Sunrise, Norrtälje Konsthall, 2025.
Installation documentation, 5 min excerpt (sound on), Sunset/Sunrise, Norrtälje Konsthall, 2025.
Installation view, Sunset/Sunrise, Norrtälje Konsthall, 2025. Photo: Mike Karlsson Lundgren.
Sunset/Sunrise (The Fairy Garden), 9.20 min. Cinematography: Conny Karlsson Lundgren (left channel), Camilla Topuntoli (right channel).


CREDITS Cinematography: Camilla Topuntoli (4K), Conny Karlsson Lundgren (DV).  Music: Jesper Norda (after Ravel’s Le jardin féerique) Cello/Recordist: Christopher Berg. Special Thanks: Fredrik Egerstrand/Studion Ringön. ABOUT Commissioned for the exhibition Sunset/Sunrise  at Norrtälje Konsthall.EXHIBITIONS Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje SE.

 ©MMXXVI Conny Karlsson Lundgren