Family feels offended by work of art in Växjö

Family feels offended by work of art in Växjö.

The interactive art project by Anna Hesselgren have provoced strong reactions. A family in Växjö means their family grave at the

Cemetery of Tegnér has been desacrated.

Photo: LinnHedesström Blad

Here on the Cemetery of Tegnér two of the volunteers chose to place their figures.

-I feel very sorry that this family has taken it so badly. But at the same time the purpose of the project is to create reactions. Maybe in

this case it went to far, Anna says. It was during this year´s event “ Spring City “ in Växjö that the artist based in Stockholm staged

her project StillAlive- Man as the Place, after an invitation from Växjö art hall.

20 sculptures, 30 cm long figures of a human being, were picked up by 20 volunteers that were given the mission to outplace the

sculptures around the city. The outplacers had the instruction to find “protected” places in the public environment. Two of them chose

to place their figures on the Cemetery of Tegnér.

Now , a month later, Anna Hesselgren has recieved a letter from a family in Växjö that expresses their anger against how this project

has desacrated their family grave and intruded into their private sphere.

” Want hereby to express my and my family’s disgust for this desacration of our family grave that I mean we have been exposed to

through this macabre male figure that has been placed on our tombstone.You should have conditioned the outplacement better! We

don’t consider our family grave belonging to the public space”, the letter says, among other things.

Anna H has chosen to publish the letter from the family on the website of the project- www.stillalive.eu- where she also has published

the descriptions of the two volunteers where they describe why they have chosen to place the figures on the graveyard.

- I hope that this can give the family an understanding about the project and why the outplacers have chosen to do what they did.

Do you take any responsability for this?

- I don’t really know what else I can do more than publish the texts on the homepage. And it’s the outplacers task to feel what can be

approriate, says, Anna H.

According to the present information she has the two figures have been taken away from the cemetery- which also is a part of the

project. When the figures have been outplaced it’s ok for those who find them to bring them home and become godparents. As a

return the artist wants the finder to donate a sum to an human aid organisation. Preferably to an organisation that supports those

people that in one way or another have been offended in the public space.

I don’t know exactly what happens to the figures. But I have been informed that about half of them have disappeared from the places

they were put in, but I have by now only recieved one godparent.

- I would like more people to get in touch with me through my homepage and tell me where they have placed the figures that they

have picked up.

The stories are an important and interesting part of the work of art, says Anna Hesselgren.

Andreas Westergren, Smålandsposten 2009-07-03

Comments from the reader of the daily newspaper Smålandsposten

Ridiculous

Ridiculous to bother about such a thing. Desecration, give up!

Posted by D 2009-07-03 11:50

Getting offended

To get offended seems to be the new sport nowadays in Sweden.

Everybody seems to be offended to the left and to the right for things nobody would raise an eyebrow about five years ago.

Posted by AW Svensson 2009-07-03 11:51

Understand

Fully understand that the family feels offended. If one has bought the right to have a grave in a cemetery this one shouldn’t be part of

the public space. Isn’t this a crime against the peacefulness in the graveyard?

Posted by Växjö 2009-07-03 14:07

Untasty stunt !

I don’t want our family grave ”decorated” by some idle clowns. This kind of art seems to exist only to annoy and provoke people.

Posted by Gert 2009-07-03 14:08

Strange

The signatures D and AW Svensson must lack empathy . I would have denounced it to the police. Some don’t have respect for human

beings , alive or dead.

Posted by Emma F 2009-07-03 14:13

Read David Eberhard’s book

No one takes shit in the country of the easily offended.

Posted by ENY 2009-07-03 14:14

They surely never meant to harm

But I can understand that those connected to the graves have taken it badly.Grief and missing is so delicate and individual that you

cannot judge them for being offended.

Posted by Konrad 2009-07-03 15:13

Hard to understand!

The figure that lies so calm by the tombstone inspires a nice feeling! It’s no desecration, I would be very happy if such a figure turned

up on my mother’s grave and so would she! I think the letter to the artist is an overreaction !

Posted by Eva F 2009-07-03 15:14

Self-proclaimed artists

Self-proclaimed artists have been around again! Disgusting and mean!

Posted by UP Karlsson 2009-07-03 19:48

Hmm

Eva F: Everybody reacts of course differently about such things. Not so difficult to understand. I think EVERYBODY should understand

that it’s not appropriate to do such a thing without asking beforehand.. Bad manners !

Posted by Henke 2009-07-03 19:48

A new Odell?

If you first read about the project maybe you will understand it better instead of discharging all of it immediately. It shouldn’t be so

hard for the offended to MOVE the figure a few meters out in the graveyard? The figures lay in many different places in Växjö and

there isn’t anyone getting upset about a figure laying outside THEIR door. Stop the nonsence and grow up! It happens that the

people working in the cemetery occasionally put a watering can amongst the graves, don’t they?

Posted by Ingmar 2009-07-03 19:52

Break it into pieces

If I find one of the scupltures I will break it into pieces . Then I’ll call the action a ”piece of art”. By the way no tax money should be

given to art. Everybody likes to paint, but you shouldn’t give money to tramps that want to realize themselves. Art can be anything

and it should be for free or selfsupporting

Posted by LL 2009-07-03 21:09

Well

The person who placed the figure by the family grave belongs to the same family himself. ”My grandpa comes from Växjö . In Växjö is

our familygrave with his cousins etc. “

Posted by Well 2009-07-04 10:50

LL, I think we should get rid of everything that has to do with art and culture. I look forward to a world where we sit and listen to the

radio hum, look at our white paintings and look at the ants war on the TV screen....

Posted by Olof 2009-07-04 10:51

Art is not to offend

Art can be many things but to do intrusion on a grave is not one of them. Had the figure been somewhere else than in the graveyard it

would have been nice and beautiful, but to place one on someone’s tombstone was a nasty thing to do. To compare it with a staircase

or doorstep is absurd. No. Respect is what it’s all about. But we should also learn to see things from another perspective sometimes,

but this case is not one of them.

Let them rest in peace..

Posted by Sandra 2009-07-05 10:49