The experimental and marginal art gallery S:t Petri was founded in 1971 in Lund, a city in the south of Sweden, in the province of Skåne, by Jean Sellem.
Its political, economic, and religious independence, as well as its exclusively non-commercial activities, make it a particularly original place in Europe.

Contributing largely to the introduction of experimental and marginal art in Sweden, the Gallery aimed to be a forum where the exhibitions would reflect the new tendencies of international art, while also being open to other activities such as music, literature, and debates.
More than 500 artists from all over the world have presented their ideas and works there, as well as writers, philosophers, and psychologists.

A meeting space for people of varied interests, everyone comes freely to discuss in a friendly atmosphere — to share or confront different conceptions, artistic expressions, and life experiences.
Nothing is bought or sold there, and the Gallery also holds a rare archive collection on modern art.

In April 1977, the Gallery was about to close its activities, having been refused by the municipality a subsidy request of 15,000 Krs, corresponding to the annual rent of its premises, submitted through the Ars Libera Foundation.
Despite much support and the intervention of university professors, the motion of the Communist Party (Vpk), and the statement by the president of the municipal council Sverker Oredsson (Fp) emphasizing the Gallery’s role in cultural life, the social-demokrater followed a voting directive against the proposal — even though some of their members, acting on personal responsibility, declared they rejected the request.
Discipline and loyalty to the party are the two pillars of the social-demokrati!

In the newspaper S.d.S. of September 27, Birger Rehn, a social-demokrat, declared:

“There are other activities which I consider more important. During the preparation of the budget, for example, we spent 25,000 Krs to engage the free artistic groups increasingly in our work.”

It was already known — though not yet here! — that only realist art is considered sacred…

After Lubomyr Molnyk’s protest during his concert at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, denouncing the cultural policy of the social-demokrati, the Gallery reopened for a large happening on December 15, the day of the municipal session that was to decide again on the matter.

For this occasion, it created its own Lundadabank, issuing a new currency printed on the model of the dollar and called ræn, one ræn worth 10 Kre (10 F).
In Swedish, the word ræn means both “clean” (ræn pengar = clean money) and “reindeer,” a typical Scandinavian animal.
Also note that Mr Birger Rehn, social-demokrat…

Under the slogan En för alla, alla för ræn (“One for all, all for one… reindeer”), and amid a cascade of puns, this “reindeer currency” was accompanied by an exhibition of the satirical book Lundius: Commedia dell’arte, remarkably illustrated by the Polish artist Andrzej Płoski, with a text by Jean Sellem, recounting the misadventures of a poor emigrant artist in the land of reindeer.

The sharpness of the irony had an effect: that very evening, the municipal council finally granted the subsidy for 1978.
A center of cultural life and innovation, the Gallery — ideally located opposite the busy municipal library — resumed its activities with a presentation of underground photographs from England.

One year of irony… and what next?

Lund, January 1978
Joëlle Dautricourt

For further information, please contact:
Jean Sellem, Galerie S:t Petri
S:t Petri Kyrkogata 5
S-222 01 Lund, Sweden
Tel. 046 / 14 78 00