[JEANSELLEM VIEWER] — UBBEBODA CENTER 22.11 - 04.12.1974 — Categories: visual, press — Keywords: Galerie S:t Petri, Jean Sellem, archive — Category: visual — — — Category: press — — — Category: press — Artists’ collective at Galerie S:t PetriLUND: Ubbehoda Center — an artists’ collective — is currently exhibiting at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund. The idea of Ubbehoda is presented through various documents, sketches, photographs and objects. This evening, Saturday, an event will be held around and together with the artists.The collective was founded four years ago and is based in an old, disused elementary school in Ubbehoda, in Osby municipality.At the end of August, the collective attracted considerable attention in connection with an international sculpture symposium.One of the artists dug a hemispherical pit in the schoolyard. From the excavated earth, she formed a softly rounded mound that was sown with garden cress.The municipal authorities did not understand the artwork at all. Quite the opposite.The municipal executive committee decided that the schoolyard should be restored to its “original condition” because of the “risk of accidents”. The police ordered a bulldozer to the site. The artist was driven away, and the pit was filled in again.In recent years, Ubbehoda has developed into an international information and contact centre, something that was expressed in the 100-day symposium this summer.Today, the collective faces the threat of eviction because of Osby municipality’s intolerant attitude towards its artistic activities. — — — Category: press — Signature lists for UbbebodaA small demonstration marched through Lund on Saturday evening. It was the artists from the Ubbeboda artists’ collective who were protesting against having been given notice. They must leave the school by New Year.The artists, about ten of them, are in Lund over the weekend to attend an exhibition about Ubbeboda at Galerie S:t Petri.[Beginning of sentence missing] ... the municipality’s small cultural committee reads the Cultural Commission for State and Municipality’s report on support for free artistic creation, the resolution states. The resolution will now form the basis for a petition to be circulated among art schools and galleries. So far, Valand School of Art, Drakabygget and Galerie S:t Petri have signed.[Handwritten note]SOS, 24 November 1974 — — — Category: press — — — Category: press — Artists’ collective appears in LundThe Uddeboda artists’ collective was founded four years ago. The black granite (diabase) was the actual reason why the collective came into being. Sculpture was its main activity. Since then, other activities have developed: exhibitions and courses (sculpture, painting, ceramics, woodcarving). At Uddeboda school, premises are available to people who wish to work with different artistic media.In recent years, Uddeboda has developed into an international information and contact centre, something that found expression in a 100-day symposium in the summer of 1974.The exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri, from 22 November to 4 December, presents Uddeboda as an idea through various documents, sketches, photographs and objects.Tomorrow, Saturday, at 6 p.m., an evening devoted to and involving the Uddeboda Center will be held. — — — Category: press — Document on the lack of freedom of art:The excavator at UbbebodaFrom DN’s Malmö editorial officeMALMÖ, FridayIf the municipal officials in Osby in northern Skåne possibly thought that they had buried the Ubbeboda symposium when, at the end of the summer, they had an excavator fill in “a hole” in the schoolyard of the small forest village under remarkable circumstances, they were mistaken.The action against the Polish artist Theresa Murak’s perhaps unusual work, described by many as an outrageous violation of artistic freedom, is well documented in an extensive series of photographs. This forms part of an exhibition opening on Saturday at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, intended to show how the entire symposium was treated, what it led to and how the municipal officials regarded it.Ubbeboda is a small locality in northeastern Skåne. The sculptor Hjalmar Råstorp moved there, where he had easy access to the black granite. He was able to rent the old school and, in addition to his own sculptural work, began various activities there. Among other things, he brought together woodcarvers from the area for exhibitions that attracted considerable attention.Most of it destroyedSeveral artists also gathered around him, including the Japanese art professor Yosho Nakajima. Together they agreed to organize a hundred-day symposium during the past summer.There was considerable interest among artists around the world. Among other things, they were to be given the opportunity to work in the quarries. Interest from neighbours and the authorities was not as great. The symposium was opposed in every possible way and, partly because of financial difficulties, did not become what the organizers had intended.But it did take place. Around twenty artists worked there throughout, and at times twice as many were present. More than 600 letters expressing sympathy and exchanging ideas arrived from all over the world.Most of what was created in what might be called permanent form has already been destroyed. This includes the hole with its corresponding hemisphere that Theresa Murak constructed in the schoolyard, but which the municipal engineer had obliterated. He considered it a danger to public safety.Surprised police officersThe intervention was carried out with police assistance and was reported to the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO). This complaint has resulted in numerous lengthy interrogations and investigations that have still not been concluded. Thus, even without the documentary exhibition — which, incidentally, will open with a discussion on the freedom of artists — the Ubbeboda symposium has not yet been forgotten.And in the old school, preparations are under way for a new woodcarving exhibition, while at the same time the municipality has terminated the lease as of 1 January and intends to sell the school.The artists are now preparing for another encounter with Hässleholm police officers who, according to the interrogation records, were somewhat surprised and are not accustomed to interventions of this kind — interventions that the artists compare with what otherwise tends to happen in Moscow.CLAES STURM[Handwritten note]DN, 25 November 1974 — — — Category: press — <p><br></p><p>[Caption]To gain more space, the floor at Ubbehoda has been put to use for sorting the exhibition material. From left: Malgazota Kubiah, Poland; little Mette, Denmark; Hjalmar Råstorp, Ubbehoda; Mette Aarre, Denmark; and Tuik, Japan.</p> — Ubbehoda Center does not give upExhibits at a gallery in LundUbbehoda Center will continue to exist despite setbacks and a negative attitude at the municipal level, says artist Hjalmar Råstorp. Visible proof of this is the exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, from 22 November to 4 December, where the intention is to present Ubbehoda as an idea.At the moment they are busy assembling what will be exhibited in Lund. The exhibition includes articles, printed matter, experimental art and conceptual art. What is shown in the exhibition is part of what was produced during the symposium in Ubbehoda.On 24 November, a special Ubbehoda evening will be organised at the gallery. Information will then be given about the symposium and about what happened in Ubbehoda during the 90 days and in the period afterwards. The much-discussed filled-in pit will, of course, also be given its place, both in this programme and in the exhibition as a whole.The intention had also been to hold an exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. When the museum closed for repairs, the works that had already been sent to Stockholm had to be returned. These will now be included in the exhibition in Lund. — — — Category: press — <p><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">SDS, 19 November 1974</span></p> — Ubbeboda Center comes to LundWill Ubbeboda Center ever be “recognized”? We may perhaps get the answer when the enthusiasts from the 100-day symposium around the quarry at Yxhult in northern Skåne exhibit in Lund. On Friday, 22 November, at 3 p.m., an exhibition opens at Galerie S:t Petri intended to present Ubbeboda as an idea. The exhibition lasts two weeks and includes articles, prints, experimental art and conceptual art, much of it consisting of what was produced during the symposium last summer.At a special Ubbeboda evening, information will be given about the symposium… — — — Category: press — Will Lund become the new Ubbehoda?HÄSSLEHOLM (KvP) — We are fighting for our existence, so things may get a little rough! Sculptor Hjalmar Råstorp walks around Ubbehoda school sorting through the material that, from Friday and for the following fourteen days, will be exhibited at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund. Things may come to a head on Saturday, when the artists’ collective is organising an evening of debate in Lund.The exhibition at the gallery on S:t Petri Kyrkogata has been organised so that the Ubbehoda artists can present their idea and their activities in what they consider to be a somewhat warmer cultural climate than the one prevailing in the forests of Göinge.“The municipality apparently doesn’t want to give us a single penny! They may perhaps be able to starve us to death. But not the Ubbehoda idea. It will live on.”EvictedThe artists’ collective has been given notice to leave the premises at Ubbehoda school by 1 January. They have no intention of moving voluntarily.Hjalmar Råstorp has already arranged an exhibition of woodcarving.“We are expecting 1,000 works. The exhibition starts on 15 December and continues until the middle of January.”During the debate earlier this autumn about whether or not the artists’ collective should remain in the former village school, a proposal was made to convert the school into a community centre.Hjalmar Råstorp has now heard that Osby municipality is planning to sell both school buildings. Hardly to him or to the artists’ collective, however.New roof tilesRecently the municipality has put new roof tiles on the school buildings. In addition, according to the artists, it has created new works of art to replace the one that, amid great commotion, was filled in with an excavator at the end of August.The old roof tiles lie in large piles in the schoolyard.Hjalmar Råstorp smiles broadly:“The municipality is better at destroying works of art than creating them.”More beautifulIt must readily be admitted that Teresa Murak’s “mound and pit” looked much more beautiful than the piles of broken roof tiles. On the other hand, it was the pit, not the mound, that prompted the municipal executive committee to send in the excavator.The Ubbehoda artists are firmly determined to continue their struggle. Next up is Saturday’s “battle in Lund”.[Caption]During the reroofing, Osby municipality has “composed” new “works of art” in the schoolyard at Ubbehoda. In the foreground is the memorial to Polish artist Teresa Murak’s gravel pit, which the municipality filled in.[Caption]Mette Aare demonstrates that — in the absence of an oven — bread can be baked in a ceramic kiln. — — — Category: visual — <p><em style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">The Danish filmmaker Jens Jørgen Thorsen “attacks” Osby municipality with a hammer and crowbar, while the Japanese artist Yoshio Nakajima performs an “improvised” hara-kiri (Japanese suicide by cutting open the abdomen) in protest against the municipality’s actions. Photo: Göran Wilhelmsson.</em></p> — Osby municipality and police reported to the Parliamentary Ombudsman by artistLÖNSBODA: The artists’ collective at Ubbeboda Center continues its dispute with Osby municipality, following the leveling of an “artwork” consisting of a pit and a mound in order to prevent accidents. The latest phase of the dispute is that one of the artists, the Japanese artist Yoshio Nakajima, has filed a complaint with the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) against Osby municipality and the police in Osby for trespassing on private property and destroying a “very valuable sculpture”, without prior warning.It was on 23 August that the pit made by the Polish artist Teresa Murak in the schoolyard at Ubbeboda was filled in. One of the reasons was that the municipality considered the pit a danger, among other things to visitors. The artists had, however, previously been instructed to put some kind of fence around the pit. This was not done. When the pit was to be filled in, municipal employees were prevented from carrying out their work, and the police were therefore called in to assist.Yoshio Nakajima has now reported what happened to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. In his complaint he states, among other things, that the incident took place on private property. The complaint continues: “We rent, and have rented, this house and the property from the municipality for many years. The contract says that we are not allowed to make any alterations to the house. Nor have we done so.”“What is stated in the complaint, that the municipality rented the school building and the property to the artists’ collective, is incorrect. The fact is that one of the school buildings, and nothing else, was rented to the sculptor Hjalmar Råstorp. When one rents an apartment or a building of this kind, the land is not included. It therefore still belongs to Osby municipality,” says municipal administrative chief Nils-E.B. Raustorp of Osby.The artists’ collective in Ubbeboda is thus continuing its dispute with the municipality, and the issue concerns not only the filling-in of the “pit”, with police assistance, but also the fact that sculptor Hjalmar Råstorp has been given notice to move out by 1 January 1975.Among those currently in Ubbeboda is the Danish filmmaker Jens Jørgen Thorsen, and he does not mince his words when accusing the municipality over its actions.“It is not the artists who have done wrong; it is the municipality that is the ‘lawbreaker’. It is not permitted to do what the municipality has done to us,” he says.“This business of destroying works of art is something that has now happened in Russia. There it is permitted, but not here in Sweden; the law forbids it,” says Jens Jørgen Thorsen, who also promises that the struggle against the municipality will continue.“We are now launching a counterattack against the municipality, and I promise that major things are going to happen here. Within three weeks, representatives of the municipality will be on their knees here in Ubbeboda asking forgiveness for what they have done,” he says. What exactly is being planned, he either will not or cannot reveal.