Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss

A young man comes to Stockholm, Sweden and experiences several bizarre and surrealistic situations.

The year 1957 was one of the most prolific for the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman: he shot two films, released two of his most celebrated films and produced four plays and a TV movie while juggling with a complicated private life.

In this preliminary study for Study IV “Liberation” a man hauls his alter ego through various spaces. The scene is reminiscent of Luis Buñuel’s “An Andalusian Dog”, where the man drags along a piano, two priests, and two dead donkeys. Weiss was not happy with this first, more personal version. He gave up the attempt to re-edit it.

We are at Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss home for one afternoon. A question about Peter Weiss’ drawing Parade is the starting point for this conversation. The drawing came into being during the post-war period when Peter Weiss became interested in reproducing his feeling of freedom from his childhood through circus motifs. Ingela Johansson found Parade in Södertälje municipality's art collection.

Twelve staged scenes that were modelled after a set of drawings. Accompanied by metallic sounds, various body parts, limbs and objects form surrealistic collages against the background of a black space. Peter Weiss intended to create associative images that can not be deciphered completely. Beyond any logical interpretation, he wanted to show pure inner feelings.

The working class girl from Landala, Gothenburg, through the fine art of theatre and all the way to Hollywood.