The Gynecological Cinema Chair at Göteborg Film Festival

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See hockey legend Börje Salming, as well as a former president of Interpol and a Swedish former minister of justice, in a unique interactive film experience created by celebrated artist and filmmaker Anna Odell. These men in power are offered to undergo gynecological exams as a way of showing their vulnerability. But to see this, one has to get up into the chair self.

The whole experience is interactive, open for anyone who gets their hands on a ticket, and during the screening you yourself will have to make a bold choice if you want to see the whole story fold out.

I dare promise that no similar experience has ever taken place at the Göteborg Film Festival, or any other film festival for that matter. The work explores issues that are personal, political and extremely relevant to this year’s festival focus on equality and feminism

Jonas Holmberg,

Artistic Director, Göteborg Film Festival

Anna Odell is one of Sweden’s most famous and influential artists. Her film The Reunion was presented at the Venice Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI award for best debut in the side sections Orrizonte and Critics’ Week. She also incited extensive debate in Sweden after faking and filming a suicide attempt as part of her film Okänd, kvinna 2009-349701. At Göteborg Film Festival 2020 she will for the first time show her work Undersökningen (The Examination), specially made for the festival. In the film, the artist explores the gynecologist’s chair as a metaphor for vulnerability.

You get up in the chair voluntarily, but I dare say that no one feels comfortable in it. It is also a chair that is used exclusively for examining women, which perhaps makes it even more suitable for the project. On the other hand, I think the position is quite familiar to many men. They often sit with their legs spread widely, taking up a lot of space. The position in a gynecological chair is basically the same, you just tilt it backwards

Anna Odell

The participating men featured in the film are:

  • Börje Salming, hockey legend, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
  • Thomas Bodström, author and former Swedish minister of justice
  • Björn Eriksson, former director of the Swedish police and former president of Interpol.
  • Robert Aschberg, journalist and TV host
  • Jan Guillou, author and journalist
  • Mark Levengood, journalist, author and TV host
  • Michael Dahlén, professor of marketing and consumer behaviour at the Stockholm School of Economics
  • Mårten Castenfors, head of Liljevalchs konsthall, one of Sweden’s leading art galleries
  • Stefan Larsson, director and former head of multiple Swedish theatres
  • Göran Greider, author, poet and editor-in-chief of Swedish newspaper Dala-Demokraten
  • Anders Palmér, artist

The Gynecological Cinema Chair will take place 25 January – 2 February. More information is available here

Credits:

  • Client: Göteborg Film Festival
  • Artist: Anna Odell
  • Agency: Stendahls, Gothenburg