The Sjöbloms and Båtsmans

 To accompany The Recarcassing Ceremony (2016) while it was on view at the Venice Biennale in 2026, I constructed a large vitrine full of action scenes that represented a large variety of typical activities that the Sjöbloms and the Båtsmans (the two Playmobil families who were central to a game my brother and I played obsessively for several years as children) were typically engaged in. Windsurfing, picnicking, cooking, dining, mountain climbing, skiing, ice climbing, construction work, ice skating, and a rock concert all took place cheek-by-jowl inside the one-by-one meter vitrine. All of the figures in the vitrine were the originals, saved since childhood, and nearly every piece of equipment, the animals, sports equipment, other props, and paper instruments were as well.

Viewers encountered the diorama not quite sure what they were looking at; after seeing the film in the adjacent screening room, they would emerge with a fuller understanding of everything happening in the vitrine and could even recognize particular figures.