A work in progress, Vreta Kloster by Erica van Seeters on Uddenskulptur 2026
This summer, Erica van Seeters is creating a new sculpture from a monumental block of stone: a 10-tonne mass, approximately 150 cm high, made of a rare material somewhere between granite and diabase.
From this solid block, a model of **Vreta Kloster** will gradually emerge. At first glance, the monastery may appear to stand on the stone. But in fact, it grows out of it — as if the building has always been hidden within the material, waiting to be revealed.
The choice of Vreta Kloster is deeply meaningful. In the early medieval period, monasteries such as this were places of great significance: centres of learning, care, cultivation and spiritual life. Benedictine nuns preserved and shared knowledge about plants, healing, writing and everyday life. The monastery became a place where human co-operation, discipline and knowledge could take form.
In Erica van Seeters’ work, the monastery becomes a symbol of collective human endeavour — but one that remains rooted in the earth itself. The architecture rises directly from the stone, quarried from the ground beneath our feet. It is not placed upon nature, but formed from it.
This idea resonates strongly with Erica van Seeters’ artistic practice. In her work, stone is never merely solid matter. It is also space, movement and energy — an ancient material that carries both weight and transformation. Here, history, landscape and human thought come together in a single gesture: a monastery growing out of stone.
Follow the progress of the work as the form slowly reveals itself.
