Three Stories of Little Girls:
HEIDI ALICE ZAZIE

The installations Heidi, Alice and Zazie form a trilogy in which a young girl is the principal character. Heidi is based on Johanna Spyri's Heidi novels, Alice on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Zazie on Raymond Queneau's novel Zazie dans le métro. The installations are my interpretations of the themes of these three books. I used a series of colour photographs, drawings and various objects to create them. Although I originally intended them as independent works, they function as a series to narrate the development of a girl from Heidi who is pure and kind through Alice's rebellion to Zazie's teenage anarchist.
As literary figures, Heidi, Alice and Zazie belong to the mythology of our times that provides a means for exploring the growing-up process. I have tried to empathise with the main characters and analyse issues that concern roles and growing up: physical and psychological change, expectations, conflicts, and the yearning for freedom.
Heidi was filmed in Switzerland in 1991, Alice on Helsinki's beaches in 1993, and Zazie in Paris in the summer of 1994. Apart from the story and the leading characters, location plays an important role in each of the three installations. The installations may also be seen as representations of the way in which I see places that have become mythical - the Alps, Paris and a beach in summer.