Bergmans Banaliteter (2024)
(Bergman’s Banalities)
Presented by A-FL
Artist’s Book, 63 pp. Numbered edition of 100
Published by Farozonen Förlag
1948 saw the publication of Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Moraliteter’ (/Moralities, Bonniers), and in 2024, ‘Bergmans Banaliteter’ (Bergman’s Banalities, Farozonen) presented by A-FL, was released. The Swedish director was widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Despite significant international success, Ingmar Bergman’s self-image was characterized by a sense of being misunderstood. The director, who claimed to have been rejected from birth, may have been his own harshest critic.
In Bergman’s Banaliteter by A-FL, a heavily annotated original manuscript for a series of previously unpublished interviews, conducted by the critic and Bergman connoisseur Henrik Sjögren (1926-2020) during the autumn of 2001, is being processed. The text is completely omitted, and all that remains are Bergman’s extensive deletions; frenetic lines dancing across the pages in red and green ink. Taken out of context, these resolute strokes transform into abstract formations that manifest Bergman’s relentless self-censorship. On the 32nd page of the original manuscript, the director writes in a desperate note: “I feel like I’m practically always stating banalities about my productions. It’s too miserable, Henrik!”
‘Bergmans Banaliteter’ is published by Farozonen Förlag in an edition of 100 hand-numbered copies, with a risograph-printed inlay in a hot-foiled cover. The book is bound with an archival clip made from tempered steel. Each copy is packaged in a hot-foiled cardboard box, closed with a cotton string.
Published by Farozonen Förlag, Stockholm, 2024
Editor: Peter Bodén
Format: 297 mm x 210 mm (8.27 inches x 11.7 inches)
Volume: 67 pages (simplex)
Print: 2 colour Risograph print, unbound slip with handwriting in pencil.
Cover: Hot-foiled title on back-to-front Fedrigoni Imitlin Rosso
Binding: Softcover, bound with archival clip in tempered steel
ISBN-13: 978-91-531-0535-0
Order the book → rarebooks@hundorat.se
Included in the collections of:
Stedelijk Museum Library (Amsterdam, NL), Cabinet du livre d’artiste (Rennés, FR), Ystads konstmuseum (Ystad, SE), Artists’ Books Archive Malmö (Malmoe, SE)
