Tor Jonsson

Sometimes airborne, Tor Jonsson is a Swedish artist based in Rotterdam. He works with sound, photography, text and performance. Jonsson’s practice
investigates human relationships to the natural world and the conditions in society through which those relationships exist.

Tor Jonsson grew up with his family on the cargo ship Marietta. The port of Vejle was one of the destinations in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Built in Hamburg in
1949, Marietta was broken up in the Netherlands in 2014. For Floating Art – Cry Me a River Marietta has appeared again in Vejle in a new form. She holds a cargo of sound – a collage made up from cassette tapes, which the family used to record correspondence, for practicing naval English, to learn Morse code, to listen to fairytales, and lullabies to fall asleep to.

The sound fragments could be thought of as sci-fi poems that tell a story about being part of a ship. The reincarnated Marietta invites the viewer to consider the lives and stories that make up the ships that arrive in the port of Vejle every day.

Sounds can sometimes be heard from the Marietta. These sounds can also be heard here.

Photo: David Stjernholm