Christel Lundberg

Outdoor Library

THE ALLOTMENTGARDEN AT S:T KNUTS TORG
PUBLIC INSTALLATION May-December 2003

fotografi: © Åke Hedström, 2003

The Allotment Garden at St. Knut's Square was an art installation made in 2003 in a central square in Malmo. It was installed at St. Knut's Square from May to December 2003, had a size of 120 square meters, consisting of four tons of material. The Allotment Garden was built of recyclable materials. The labor force came from voluntary citizens of Malmö.

The vision was to bring cultivating closer to citizens in a public place, all of whichwe can share collectively.

fotografi: © Åke Hedström, 2003

Cultivation is a good workable and concrete platform for political discussions, because of its ambivalent relationship to nature. It is both anthropocentric and ecocentric: it is both a way to control nature as it is an opportunity for us to understand and be a part of nature. And politically, when we become landowners, this is in itself a shift from altruism to egoism, or when is land ownership ethically and environmentally problematic? We do not ask people to draw final conclusions about the market economy impact on society, but it is a call to citizens, not only in Malmö but all over the world to react and respond to the increasing domination of the economy that reaches all the countries through globalization. "Allotment Garden at St. Knut's Square" was a non-violent contribution to this discussion.

fotografi: © Åke Hedström, 2003

"Allotment Garden at St. Knut's Square" was a reminder that we need public places that are not commercial and which invite all citizens. If we do not use them, they become repositories for the municipality or worse, parkinglots. This central allotment was used day and night the hot season of 2003. It was used for small concerts, social meetings, resting place for political meetings, sports, sunbathing, lectures, culture, people harvested and planted, watered and cared about it. At night it was used by young people as a place where they could meet and talk in a more "private atmosphere" than public places tend to be.

fotografi: © Åke Hedström, 2003

With a male choir and a lit Christmas tree, we took leave of allotment garden in december and the garden was dismantled and the material was returned to the recycling company.

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SPONSORER:
Alnarps Lantbruksuniversitet
Bf.
Byggagnat, Trelleborg
Genarps Lådfabrik
Lillöpil, Kristianstad, www.lillopil.com
Nordiska Genbanken, Alnarp
SYSAV, Malmö
UVS, UnderVisningsService,
Vegtech, Fagerås, Vislanda, www.vegtech.se
Ågab, Malmö
Malmö Återbyggdepå, Malmö, www.byggigen.se

I SAMARBETE MED:
Konstfrämjandet Skåne
ABF-Malmö
Naturskyddsföreningen Malmö

MED STÖD AV:
Miljöförvaltningen, Malmö Stad