A RAILWAY CASE: by Eva Rocco Kenell

“Járnbrautarmálið / A Railway Case takes as its point of departure an unrealized railway project, and unfolds into an investigation of the poet and entrepreneur Einar Benediktsson (1864-1940). The film examines the historical legacy of his entrepreneurship and its ecological and economic consequences to this day. Járnbrautarmálið / A Railway Case dwells upon Benediktsson’s entrepreneurial ambitions, but turns them away from a conventional nationalist narrative. The film traces the marks and materials his various projects have left behind in libraries, museums and archives.”

Text from exhibition at Konstfrämjandet Skåne. Curated by Hans Carlsson

Eva Rocco Kenell holds a BFA from Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and a MFA from Konstfack University of Arts and Craft, Stockholm where she graduated with the honorable Principal scholarship. Kenell’s artistic practice is based on a documentary ground, even though the intentions are rather to break down classical narratives and normative storytelling. Not only concepts surrounding fiction and reality are central, but also questions around which one of the two is creating the other. Her methodology consists of a research based practice with a focus on micro-histories, where she explore single events and where details in a story can become the new center and the place which the focus is transferred to. Her work brings up notions concerning the role of the documentary, storytelling, concept of truth and imitation. And at the same time it opens up for questions around freedom of movement and counter-strategies.