The Laser saga "Urstroem"
Stockholm Water Festival 1999

In august 1999 the laser saga Urstroem was performed in central Stockholm during nine evenings. The narrative for the performance written by Jan Kriland and Bo Andersson tells a story of evolution from Swedens last ice age up to our present time. And beyond.

The saga takes place on the very grounds of the laser show; Norrström - or the Yoldia sea as it once was called. We get to experience the melting of the ice and the very early forms of life in the water. The story takes us further through the milleniums, illustrating the biological evolution of the land animals, the dinosaurs and the flying reptiles. The primeval cell - the genetic core - is represented hovering over the water.

A new chapter starts, where the narrating form shifts from laser animation to giant slide projections on the front of the royal castle. We learn the history of civilisation and technology developing from the stone age and forward. Through suggestive images we are presented to mans changing types of housing from the primitive caves of the stone age up to todays modern living with graffitti added as a visual contemporary symbol for our times. Times when we, through the triumph of technology, finally seem to unravel the very smallest components of life; the genes.

The story is once again handed over to the laser projectors for the final part of the saga about the present and the future. We see how man with his newly acquired knowledge, now has become capable of building life on his own. In the final, we are once again presented with the primeval cell/the gene hovering high above us. There are beams surrounding it in electrical rotation. As they grow thinner and fade out, man is revealed inside the gene. Maybe we were never meant to break the bond we have with our own genes...?

Michael Roberts' photos from the performance: