The exhibition "VRIDAVÄNDAVIRVLAVÄVA" at Skissernas Museum draws attention to Gunilla Klingberg's latest public project. Klingberg is one of Sweden's most influential artists with several large-scale works on his CV. Among the most recent are two well-known works for urban environments in Stockholm: "Whirlwind" (2021) for the facade of the Sergel Pavilion at Sergels Torg and "The Red Thread (Katarina)" (2025) for the entrance hall and waiting hall in Nya Slussen's bus terminal in Katarinaberget. Both designs are anchored in the history and local environment of the place, while the artistic expression takes them into the present. The exhibition presents physical and digital preparatory work for the projects. For the exhibition, Klingberg has also created new works from materials she has saved from the artistic process.
The 140 square meter design "Whirlwind" is fully integrated into the Sergelpaviljon's facade and was commissioned by Vasakronan and in close collaboration with Marge Arkitekter. The pavilion houses a restaurant and bar with a view of Sergel's Square. Klingberg's work tells about events in and around the square, one of Sweden's most famous public spaces. Traces of various activities seem to have blown up with a whirlwind and left imprints in the red-pigmented concrete facade and in the cut-out sheet metal window screens. We can find flags, placards, #metoo, cue tags, pins, footballs, confetti, balloons, paper bags and spilled coffee - symbols that are all carriers of a story about the place, about the square as a gathering place to demonstrate, to honor people or for to celebrate something in common.
"The red thread (Katarina)" is Klingberg's biggest creation to date. The work is part of one of Sweden's most debated infrastructure projects. In the sketch proposal, the artist starts from the significant textile industry that existed around Slussen during the late 1800s. The project's focus on labor history and industrialization runs like a red thread through the different parts of the work. A patterned silk shawl, woven by one of all the women who worked in the workshops, becomes the starting point for the design of the waiting hall's 4 square meter terrazzo floor. In Klingberg's digital sketches, the shawl appears to be thrown over the floor, which is currently cast in place in seven different shades of red. When we can move through the vast room next year, we will experience the constant changes in the work.
Anyone who travels to or from the Triangeln train station in Malmö is perhaps familiar with Gunilla Klingberg's patterned concrete floor, decorative surveillance globes, artificial sun and flower formations in steel. The four works have the common title "Everyday life patterns" and were inaugurated in 2010.
Gunilla Klingberg (born 1966) has performed public performances in Sweden, Norway, Canada and the USA. Klingberg studied graphic form at RMI-Berghs and sculpture at Konstfack. She has had solo exhibitions and participated in art biennales in several European countries, in South Korea and in the USA. Klingberg has recently been an adjunct professor at the Royal Academy of Arts and has been a member of the Academy of Arts since 2019. In the fall of 2025, she holds a residency scholarship at ISCP in New York through the Artists' Board. Klingberg lives and works in Stockholm and is represented at, among others, the Moderna Museet and the Malmö Art Museum.
The exhibition is carried out with support from Vasakronan.
Thanks to Herrljunga Terrazzo