Kulturarvet Sågverkstomten

The location for the old sawmill is today a contaminated industrial site in Rydöbruk that has been fenced off for the past forty years. A site that previously housed a viable industrial production, based on the standards of the time, has now been transformed into an almost impenetrable natural area where access is prohibited pending a possible remediation.

Eric Andersson has produced a public art installation in the design of an information station titled Kulturarvet Sågverkstomten. The design is inspired by traditional information stations, similar to those found adjacent to important heritage sites, such as nature reserves or historical cultural monuments. The work points to different layers of the site’s history and present. As visitors to the site is met by fences and signs that prohibit access, his work opens up reflection on this thorny cultural heritage and asks what we do with it in the future. In his work, there are also links to about a hundred similar places around Sweden. Places that are part of our history but are never marked on any destination maps.

What does actually become part of what we see as our common cultural heritage? And what do we do with the heritage we would most like to forget or hide away? Isn’t that, too, part of our cultural heritage?