Sculpture at Pilane's creation in 1997 stemmed from a television journalist, a motor saw and 200 sheep. City-dweller Peter Lennby decided to become a farmer in Pilane. He was tired of seeing this culturally rich landscape, bursting with historic remains, become increasingly overgrown.
Aided by a powerful motor saw, a large herd of sheep and plenty of energy, he opened up the landscape again. He then had the genius idea that this beautiful natural setting ought to be used as an arena for art. Peter approached the sculptor Tony Cragg, who regularly spends his summers on Tjörn, and soon the artistic wheels were spinning, with the first exhibit focusing on animals, nature and sculptures in a pre-historic landscape.
The sculpture exhibit in 2010 included the Indian artist Jitish Kallat's 30-metre-long sculpture of pre-historic bones, Icelandic Steinunn Thorarinsdottir's installation of 14 human figures in wrought iron and aluminium and Tony Cragg's six-metre tall, three-tonne 'Point of View'.
This is a cultural landscape in every sense of the word, and from the top of the hills, visitors can admire the breathtaking ocean and Bohuslän archipelago, from Pater Noster in the South to Måseskär in the North. "When will you be happy?" Jitish Kallat asked with his dinosaur bones last summer. Many of the visitors probably answered: "Now and here."
Click here to see photographs of Sculpture at Pilane 2011.
This article comes from the publication West Side Stories
Inspiration and links:
World-class art with Björholmen Marina and Guesthouse
Salt & Sill’s ‘Sculpture at Pilane’ package
Salt & Sill’s Culture Package