Hjermind-stenen II
Lyt til fortællingen om Hjermind-stenen II / Listen to the story of the Hjermind Stone II:
Foretrækker du i stedet at læse, kan du det her (English version here):
Ved Hjermind i Midtjylland, år 1643, gik en bonde og pløjede sin mark. Nedsunket i jorden på en lille forhøjning, stødte bonden på en sten. Blot 1000 skridt fra Hjermind sten I, fandtes nu en Hjermind sten II. “Tove rejste denne sten efter sin søn Toste, … en god dreng”. Det er en mindesten, hvor Tove erklærer sit familiære bånd til sin søn. En god dreng. En god dreng på Toves tid var en duelig, fysisk god – men også moralsk og emotionelt – god dreng. En ung, ugift mand. Måske en kriger.. Mellem år 970 og 1020 har Tove født et barn, opfostret ham og rejst stenen for ham. Hylder hun Toste, eller har hun mistet?
I 2025 transformeres Tove til Frida Retz: “Frida erected this stone to the creature in her belly”. Frida skænker, som Tove, en sten til sit kæreste eje: det, der for en moder er det mest særlige, og noget at rejse en sten for: det lille væsen i maven. Toste er udskiftet med et ukønnet væsen, som ikke er skænket (unødige) ladede tillægsord. Hvad vil det overhovedet sige at være god? Væsnet i Fridas mave får blot lov at være. “Hey little baby this is for you a stone, to remind you that someday you will feel blue you are still worth here too”. Men stenen, der er rejst af Frida Retz, masseproduceres. Den bliver til merchandise. Babyer bliver til merchandise, bliver én blandt mange i samfundet. En forventet produktion. Det, der for samfundet er en del af et maskineri, er for en moder en kulturarv. Den gravide er bærer af endeløse forventninger til moderskabet, er en fødemaskine og også et seksuelt væsen.
Disse forskellige positioner skildrer Frida Retz i sin musikvideo i tre scenografier: I en fjern fortid, som en reinkarneret Tove, hvor hun i et intimt rum, med stenen ved siden af, synger direkte til sin baby. Fabrikken i et maskinelt rum, som en arbejder ved samlebåndet. Og det kollektive moderskab, som en popstjerne, der performer i en mommy-girl-group, hvor moderskabet gøres hot og bryder en stereotypisk fortælling om moderen som et aseksuelt væsen med en industriel krop. Værket forløses af fødslen. “The creature in my belly” bliver født.
På tværs af tusinder af år forenes Frida og Tove i et urgammelt fællesskab, moderskabet. De forenes som mødre, der bærer og kerer om deres barn, og med deres livmoder rejser barnet, som man har rejst sten, et levende vidnesbyrd, en fortælling og en arv.
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The Hjermind Stone II
Near Hjermind in Central Jutland, in the year 1643, a farmer was out ploughing his field. Sunken into the soil on a small rise, the farmer struck a stone. Just a thousand steps from Hjermind Stone I, there was now a Hjermind Stone II. “Tove raised this stone after Toste, her son, a valiant boy.” It is a memorial runestone, where Tove declares her familial bond to her son. A very good boy. A good boy, in Tove’s time, was someone who was capable — physically good, yes — but also morally and emotionally good. Toste was a young, unmarried man. Probably a warrior. Between the year 970 and 1020, Tove gave birth to a child, raised him, and raised the stone for him. Is she honoring Toste — or mourning for him?
Now, in 2025, Tove is transformed into Frida Retz: “Frida erected this stone to the creature in her belly.” Like Tove, Frida offers a stone to her most precious being: which, for a mother, is most sacred. Something worth raising a stone for— the small creature growing inside of her. Toste is replaced with a genderless being, free from unnecessary, loaded adjectives. What does it even mean to be good? The being in Frida’s belly is simply allowed to be… “Hey little baby, this is for you a stone to remind you , that someday you will feel blue – you are still worth here too” But the stone raised by Frida Retz is mass-produced. It becomes merchandise. Babies become merchandise, become one among many in society. An expected production. What society sees as part of a machinery, a mother sees as cultural heritage. The pregnant woman carries endless expectations of motherhood — she is a birthing machine, and also a sexual being.
In her music video, Frida Retz stages these different identities across three scenographies: – In a distant past: as a reincarnated Tove, in an intimate space, singing directly to her unborn child with the stone beside her. – In the factory: a mechanical space, as a worker on the assembly line. – And in the collective motherhood: as a pop star performing in a mommy-girl-group, where motherhood is made hot and breaks the stereotypical narrative of the mother as an asexual being with an industrial body. The piece culminates with the birth. “The creature in my belly” is born.
Across thousands of years, Frida and Tove are united in an ancient kinship: motherhood. They are united as mothers who carry and care for their children, and with their wombs, they raise the child, just as one once raised stones — a living testimony, a story, and a legacy.
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