Christmas markets are delightful and awaken a longing within me when I think of my old workplace. The annual Christmas market outside the museum entrance has an irresistible charm. The weight of nostalgia feels overwhelming. The grand county museum, with its fantastic exhibitions, stirs strong emotions in me. Every visit is a melancholic journey. Every step I take reminds me of the memories and moments I have left behind.
Once inside the museum, the excitement hovers. Many fantastic exhibitions to explore. One of the exhibitions, “Out of the Shadows” – an art exhibition by Johan Thurfjell, captures your attention. It gives a strong sense of connection and touches you deeply.
“The door is a solitary object but also a symbol. A door is never just a door: it is a portal, a threshold, an interface. It separates outside from inside, but also offers a path to the other side. What hides behind it?”1
Alone in the dark. Only me, the door, and the light that speaks with an intense voice for both of us. Small in the sense of the room, yet so enchanting in its depth. Behind the lonely door hides something longing to reveal itself. The hidden seeps out like a loving whisper, as if the work itself challenges the boundary between presence and absence. In Johan Thurfjell’s exhibition Out of the Shadows, a scene is born. It is a powerful symbol of the spaces that are usually kept in darkness within us.
The installation contains two works, The Door and Backstage. But it is The Door that captivates the gaze and awakens profound questions. It stands there, seemingly ordinary, yet it pulses with a mysterious sense of what is happening inside, or behind. An intriguing movement seems to have just swept past. A secret activity might be unfolding, hidden from our eyes.
In encountering the work, the thought arises that every human being carries their own inner universe. This universe is a landscape of winding corridors, narrow corners, and unexpected openings. The door becomes a marker for the point where reality and imagination meet. What we think we know is unsettled by what we only sense. It is in this in-between space. In the very moment of doubt, the work opens itself and begins to speak.
Ongoing exhibitions at Sörmland Museum to visit can be found here: https://sormlandsmuseum.se/utstallningar/
© Björn Blomqvist 2025-12-11
Some Kind of Word Artist 
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