Whirl

The artists Anja and Tomas Örn have during their participation in the residency The Listener created the sculpture Virvel, which you can see out on the narrow strip of land in the Lagan River, next to the hydroelectric power station.

A body of water tells us much about a place — it invites us to pause and observe, or it offers a valley to follow. Sometimes it reflects the sky and signals good weather; other times, it rushes forward with dizzying speed. People care deeply about water, and our rivers, lakes, and seas are of great significance to us.

In the Lagan River, hydroelectric power stations have long influenced the flow of the water. The turbines convert the water’s drop in elevation and forward motion into a spin that generates energy, producing electricity.

That circulation follows the water out of the power station in layers of vortices that fill the channel and continue along its course through the landscape. There’s a vast difference in how water moves — from calmness to the chaos that can arise from a single turbine. Sometimes the surface boils, and the vortices break apart into backflows and bursting bubbles. Other times, they spin on smoothly, without hesitation.

The sculpture Virvel sees water as movement. In collaboration with researchers at Luleå University of Technology, the artists studied how the water flows as it passes through the power station’s turbines. The artwork Virvel is a sketch of the swirling motion of the water in Knäred. It is drawn in steel pipes and lifted from the water. If one could follow a single water molecule, its movement might one day trace such a shape — somewhere, in Knäred’s beautiful river.

The sculpture is placed on the small tongue of land between the lower and upper power stations in Knäred.