Conversation Failed
When something changes in a relationship, thoughts, feelings and fears appear. Sometimes there is a
struggle. Or a silence. A failed conversation.
It is often through heritage, tradition and media that we are taught how a man and a woman ”should
be” and how they should relate to each other in a relationship. So how is the male self image
affected when the woman for instance starts to earn more money than the man? And how is the
sexual relationship affected if the man suddenly is responsible for most of the domestic work?
Conversation Failed is about people who have lived together for a longer period of time. The
project is partly based on my own experiences from various relationships, but also on the
experiences of other couples that have arised through conversations. I take a look at power
structures, gender roles and sexuality and I have talked to people who, like myself, are in midlife.
People and couples who are struggling with various adversities and bouts of anxiety in their
everyday lives. People who love, compromise, sacrifice, fail.
Is there even a possibility of understanding and reconciliation without communication?
In the project, I have been working with Clara Diesen, a poet and playwriter based in Stockholm.
I am also working with Alex Pacheco from
Crash Boom Bang Studios in Stockholm, with the design and launch of a book.
Björn Nilsson aka fodor13
Stockholm, November 2022