Uddenskulptur 2023

’Phoenix’

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Udden sculpture in the old quarry at Norra Kajen in Hunnebostrand.

Since 2011, the former quarry in Hunnebostrand has been used as an exhibition space. It is quite unusual to have such an exhibition area available, this richness has attracted attention, even across national borders.

This year’s exhibition fits in and builds on an overall vision supported by Sotenäs Municipality: Udden in Hunnebostrand is intended as a cultural site.

By exploring the boundaries of the physical site, we simultaneously reach the intellectual boundaries and also a definition of the term ‘a cultural site’.

What is it? How can it be used? Who ‘owns’ the place?

The exhibition Uddenskulptur 2023 thus has a function to keep a dialogue going.

Over the past 13 years has the exhibition group shown - with the support of Sotenäs Municipality and donors - a whole series of large sculptures where even the seashore and the rocks have partly been used. This historic quarry by the sea has indeed great potential as an exhibition site.

Uddenskulptur 2023 continues this fine tradition including works by Lukas Arons, Jan Bergh, Viktor Grachev, Ulf Johnsson, Viktor Korneev, Hans Leutscher and Hubert Maier.

Tom Flick, curator.

History of Udden

Here in northern Bohuslän, quarrying started almost two hundred years ago, where the conditions were optimal. The headland, ‘Udden’, in Hunnebostrand was one of the foremost quarries in Sweden, where the most qualified quarrying was carried out from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Advanced stone work was accomplished here for impressive buildings such as the Post Office in Gothenburg and parts of the parliament building in Stockholm. Artists came to this quarry to use the skilled stonemasons to make monuments and works of art, such as the Sibbarbs Monument at the Öresund by Bror Marklund.

After the Second World War orders decreased, and in the 70s the quarry at Udden was closed down. Plans for an extensive residential area were stopped by public opinion in 2010. Plans for transforming the area into a sculpture park were made possible in 2011.

The basis was Bohuslän’s Stone Scholarship, which was established in 1990, where a foreign sculptor is invited to work with granite every year. Thus, an international activity could be established with the 30 scholarship recipients and members at KKV-B.

Plans for Stenens hus.

In Stenens Hus, all forms of processed stone will be presented.

From the ice age formations and giant pots, the ancient rock carvings and tombs, to the quarrying of recent decades, the craftsmanship of stonemasons and the stone art of sculptors. The industry of the future will also be presented.

Based on the place’s unique characteristics, a meeting place with an international perspective will be established here, similar to the Watercolor Museum at Tjörn and the Vitlycke Museum in Tanum’s World Heritage Site.