UPHEAVAL

scenario

UPHEAVAL / scenario is an art project by visual artist Kerstin Bergendal. It responds to a public commission from the City of Gothenburg to create a new artwork for Götaplatsen – a physical addition to the existing art. However, this work is to emerge through a dialogue about and mapping of the place.

Here on the website, you can follow the different phases of the artist’s work from 2024 to 2028. On the right, you’ll see two rows of images. If you click on an image, it will open. You’ll see a text where the artist shares something about the image.

The top row shows fragments from archives, books, and research.

The bottom row follows the artist as she moves through the city—including short videos about people she has met along the way.

UPHEAVAL

scenario

The top row shows fragments from archives, books, and research.

The bottom row follows the artist as she moves through the city—including short videos about people she has met along the way.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

There seem to be certain enduring legends about the City. One of them claims that it was planned and built by Dutchmen. But it is not explained why it would be the Dutch in particular – or why they would have been given authority to found a new city in Sweden?.

In search of answers, I came across a 2021 text by Håkan Jakobsson. It offers a more nuanced view of the role played. by Dutch merchants in Sweden between 1560 and 1660. At the time, the Netherlands was a dominant power in Baltic trade. The country was also at war with Spain – over colonies, sea routes, and the Protestant cause.

Many skilled Dutch merchants and seafarers emigrated, offering their expertise and networks to the wider world, for a fee. Jakobsson follows a few individuals, who were employed by Swedish kings within the structures of the emerging Swedish national state.

One such king was Charles IX – who would become a loyal client to these Dutchmen. He aimed to build ships, forge alliances, and gather knowledge about overseas trade and colonisation. And when founding the city of New Lödöse – envisioned as a haven for enterprising, naturalised merchants – he turned to his Dutch consultants.

Another part of the same legend claims that the City was modelled on the urban plan for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies – what is now Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

I wonder if this is true. I add these images of the two cities, so you can judge for yourself.

Håkan Jakobsson, Dutch Experts in the Early Modern Swedish State: Employment Strategies and Knowledge Building, 1560–1670, Stockholm University, 2021.