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Paper short abstract:

The collections at the Nordiska museet testifies of magic, practiced in Sweden up til the turn of the century 1900. This paper discusses ongoing attempts to revive this long dormant material, through analytical perspectives and curation, in awareness of the failures of anthropocentric modernity.

Paper long abstract:

Natural grown curved branches to cure sick children. Small bundles with animal bones, stones and other charged material. The collections at the Nordiska museet in Stockholm holds rich testimony of strong and popular belief in cure, protection, and other forms of active magic, practiced in different regions of Sweden around of the turn of the century 1900. Whereas the written and some visual material as well has been published in our scientific fields the material objects have usually remained dormant in storages. A possible explanation for this might be their dual cultural status as “objects and practices considered outdated or dangerous”.

The disenchantment of modernity (Weber) has recently been questioned by historians of religion (Asprem, Thurfjell) as well as eco-political theorists (Bennett), arguing both that magical thinking and practice never were totally erased and, for the latter, the potential of enchantment and vibrant materiality to interrupt anthropocentrism and cold rationality. Inspired by this, an ongoing research project (in collaboration with Flora Bartlett) at the Nordic Museum, explores “the forest in the archives and the forest as an archive” attempting also to break the long isolation of said material collections of folk beleif. Activating them, in curation and analysis, might put an end to the perfect imagination of Swedish secular modernity to allow instead comparison with global folk traditions. On display, such testimonies of old grown forests and of relation to their more-than-human agencies, might inspire comfort and courage to audiences having to deal with the growing loss of damaging forestry.