BOXING MEMORIES

Sabina Jacobsson (idea, camera & edit)
Boxing Memories
60 min. HD 2011
Cast: Vitor Antonio Monico Truzzi and Alex Falcao
 

Text: Eva Løveid Mølster / @evabout

Vitor Antonio Monico Truzzi and Alex Falcao, apparently playing themselves, share their 
common experience in living as foreigners in Norway, over an informal cup of tea at Vitor’s 
atelier. They are both Brazilian artists, meeting for the first time, and everything is carefully 
composed by Swedish artist, Sabina Jacobsson.

The conversation takes place at the time of the tenth anniversary of the murder of Benjamin
Hermansen. Two neo-Nazis stabbed Benjamin to death in the Holmlia suburb of Oslo, because he 
had a complexion that was not consistent with their racial ideology. Alex, a photographer, sets the 
stage with a reflection on how Norwegians have changed after Benjamin’s death.

So. So sometimes it’s nice to come up with old things. And maybe - just to make people realize – did 
we change in all this time? (…) Yeah, I think sometimes it’s nice to compare, because I don’t think this 
was a case that was really solved.

Alex, soundtrack 00.08-00.34, extract marked with (…)

Simultaneously, we follow the images of Vitor in the pale January daylight, all dressed up with a
thick boiler suit, glancing over a snow covered landscape. Throughout the video these images are 
coming up as rhythmically soft breathers during the on-going conversation. We learn how Vitor, 
a creative director and producer and a former professional dancer, tries out a pair of skis for the 
first time. He struggles with the ski bindings, takes his unsteady first steps and absorbs the 
movements of the passing-by skiers.

Sabina Jacobsson’s Boxing Memories is disturbing in an intriguing way. The experiences of 
Alex and Vitor points out a feature of the Norwegian society that we don’t want to think about. 
We identify ourselves with the young people from Benjamin Hermansen’s neighborhood who are 
against racism and for an open society. But who are “we”? And did we forget about our own 
history – before the oil – when our ancestors went overseas to seek their fortune?

I think the – the young people here they are (…) I would prefer to use “wasted” (…) because they have a lot of money. They have a lot of possibilities. And they don’t care too much. Because they don’t need to be creative, they don’t need to find for resources. They have all – they have it all.

Alex, 13.42-14.06

Jacobsson’s hand-held camera sneaks up on the two Brazilians as they open up each other’s 
“boxes of memories” that no Norwegians seem to be interested in. Their own individual histories 
make them stand out from their forced designation as “foreigners”. Alex puts it quite 
metaphorically: “It is just like a chessboard. And we have positions there. And we have to follow 
the rules. And they don’t want to change these rules.” (23.57-24.05)

During the film, Sabina Jacobsson outlines an officially unknown image of Norway. It even 
seems to come as a surprise to Alex when he stumbles over the contours of an egoistic and 
segregating country, for the first time: “Am I fantasizing all this? (…) But (…) [people] from 
different countries, they (…) notice the same things as I do.” (24.35-24.48)

For me it’s very, very – double - that the Nobel Prize country has such a behavior. It’s double – it’s a 
double standard, you know. It doesn’t fit all this search for rights. Because the Nobel Prize goes for 
people which are fighting for different ideas and rights for a common, better – lives, world for everyone.  And then, it’s from here (…).

Vitor, 25.40-26.16

Jacobsson shows us that Norway can be seen as a home with not enough room for everyone. And 
this is obviously not in geographical terms. Our own uniqueness, our own stories, are being
stored in boxes in a well-known apartheid way, for the well-being of the few, the rich and the 
wasted.

With support from The Norwegian Artist Foundation

Ram Gallery Oslo 2013