The Swedish Karum group

The Swedish Karum group – an introduction

The Swedish Karum group is working with art and archaeology in the landscape of Öland, an island in the Baltic sea south-east of the Swedish coast. Our first effort during 2019 is to explore the Karum landscape, a specific area in central Öland that has given the name to the group. Since the overarching themes of the work performed in both Ireland and Sweden are stone and water, time and movement, the aim of our explorations is to walk from the stone ship Noaks Ark on the Karum grave field inland to the waters on both sides of the island and back again.

“Our aim is to explore stories and places in and around Karum over time. We will work with traces from the earliest times until the present.”Bodil Petterson

The group consists of artists, archaeologists and an environmental consultant. We will together find out how to approach the landscape and its stories and how to work together with the local community living in the vicinity of Karum. The nearest villages are Sättra, Vedby, Högsrum and Rälla. Nearby is also Ölands Museum Himmelsberga which is a combined cultural history and art museum. We collaborate closely with this museum. The first effort within these explorations is financed by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond as a so-called communication project, where Öland, as well as Ireland and also Kivik’s Museum in Skåne, are involved. We make three local explorations and performances with artists and archaeologists working together, and the result will be jointly and simultaneously presented in museums in western Ireland, on Öland and in Skåne during one or more weeks in autumn 2019.

Member of the Swedish Karum group

Anna-Karin Andersson, PhD, archaeologist, author, Sweden
Hans Gurstad-Nilsson, MA, composer, Sweden
Anne Hamrin Simonsson, multimedia artist/land-art/installation, Sweden
Helle Kvamme, MA, performance artist, Sweden
Kristina Kvamme, MSc, environmental consultant, Sweden
Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay, PhD, lecturer, archaeologist at Linnaeus University, Sweden
Bodil Petersson, PhD, associate professor, archaeologist and heritage researcher at Linnaeus University, Sweden
Gustav Wollentz, PhD, archaeologist at the University of Kiel, Germany

Karum, central Öland

Museum Himmelsberga, Öland

Himmelsberga quern stone