NSFW warmly invites you to the screening of Maria Magnusson’s film Kvarteret Aspen under Ormens år on Wednesday, November 5. Join us between 17:00 and 19:30 for the public screening, followed by an artist talk moderated by NSFW’s artistic director, Oscar Ramos. During the conversation, Magnusson will share insights into the making of the film and the ideas that inspired it!
Kvarteret Aspen under Ormens år is a six-minute, site-specific experimental film shot on 16mm and digital formats, featuring a sound collage by James Pants Beat Sorrows Part II. The film was commissioned by Bostadsbolaget to mark their 80th anniversary.
In 2025, Bostadsbolaget marks its 80th anniversary with the launch of four new art projects created by artists living and working within its own neighborhoods. The initiative brings together four artists from different generations and artistic practices: Dominika Kemilä (Kortedala), Maria Magnusson (Vasastaden), Ragnar Schmid (Guldheden), and Zdenka Kalisky (Brunnsbo), each invited to interpret the theme My Neighborhood through their individual perspectives.
For this site-specific film, Magnusson drew inspiration from the history of her residential area, Vasastaden, the name of her neighborhood, Aspen, and the stone house at Karl Gustavsgatan 16, where she has lived for fifteen years. Looking more than 150 years into the past, Kvarteret Aspen under Ormens år offers a subjective interpretation of the neighborhood, exploring how it remains both ever-changing and ever-constant. From parks and aspen trees to Aspen’s architectural details, Magnusson’s work examines the interplay between the man-made and the natural elements of her surroundings.
The artist filmed her neighborhood using a handheld Bolex camera and later developed the film by hand with caffenol. Magnusson also employed an alternative film development technique called phytogram, which allowed her to incorporate plants, leaves, and flowers from her surroundings by pressing them directly onto the film emulsion.
*Special thanks to Brunnsbo Day at Brunnsbo Square, Guldheden Library in Guldheden, NSFW in Vasastaden, and Kulturföreningen Lyktan in Kortedala.
Maria Magnusson (b. 1965) is an artist and filmmaker based in Gothenburg whose work explores the relationship between sound and moving images. She holds a Master’s degree in Photography and a Bachelor’s degree in Art History and Theory from the University of Gothenburg. Working with found footage and archival material, Magnusson combines analogue and digital filmic methods to investigate themes such as memory, dreams, and the unconscious. She has participated in artist residencies in Canada, Mexico, and California, where she explored various analogue photographic and ecological cinematic processes.
Site-specificity and collaboration with the landscape are recurring aspects of her practice, often connected to her upbringing on a farm in Norra Björke. Magnusson’s experimental films have been shown at festivals, galleries, and micro-cinemas, including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, LA FilmForum, Echo Park Film Center, Alchemy Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, Images Festival, and Experiments in Cinema, among others.