In conjunction with the ongoing move of Kiruna and the development of the new city centre, much of the city’s public art collection is also in need of relocation. We take this as an opportunity to re-examine and recontextualise a collection that has been expanding alongside the city over the last century. In an almost organic manner, artworks have been added in layers to commemorate or adorn, each at a particular moment in time and place. Over time, these pieces have come to take on meanings beyond any initial intention. With the move, the specific place each of these works has had within the cityscape will be lost. This, however, presents a chance to take a comprehensive approach to the collection and provides an opportunity to frame and situate the artworks in direct dialogue with each other, in a manner akin to the staging of an exhibition.

Still, this approach is not without its challenges. We are grappling with objects that have histories of being and becoming and that, in a sense, have themselves become historical. But in this new context, the artworks cannot be reduced to merely historical objects or physical manifestations of the memory of a place that no longer exists. Instead, the task lies in remaking the works as objects that can exist in the present moment and in the quotidian of their new place. While they undoubtedly represent traces and memories of old Kiruna, the emphasis in our treatment of them lies in the here-and-now or the direct presence of the art in the lived environment of the city.

Public works of art are often expected to perform the complex task of remembering for us, of telling the story of our city, and of being the measure of time and place. In this proposal we have no intention of telling the singular story of Kiruna. Instead, we intend for these works to continue to be part of the multiplicity of narratives that make up the city. To balance the need for memory with the need to function in the present, we believe these works are not how we remember the city, but rather the threads of the city that we keep with us.

We have made a selection of works that highlight three thematic threads that are present in the city’s collection. The works within each thread are placed in conversation both with each other and with their surroundings to allow for more nuanced understandings of each respective theme. These threads: Elements, Playfulness andDialogues are not to be understood as physical groupings or clusters of artworks within demarcated areas of the park, but rather as three distinct modes of interacting with the art intended to bring out a multiplicity of narratives and experiences.

The selections, thematizations and placements that we are presenting here are only the beginning of the recontextualisation of Kiruna’s public art collection. Beyond  the more overt forms of mediation and activations of the works that are being proposed, we are considering the art dynamic utterances within a living city. Like any other part of the city, as parts of the everyday life of Kiruna’s inhabitants, the artworks should consistently be used and renegotiated, and open to the construction of new meanings and of new relationships. New threads can and should be woven into the ones we have provided.