INFIELD installation by Linda Tegg in Stockholm

When Kieran Long, the Director of ArkDes - Sweden’s national centre for architecture and design in Stockholm - first invited the Australian artist, Linda Tegg to transform Exercisplan, the area outside the doors to ArkDes, he and everyone else at ArkDes imagined her creating a place that could be shared by the thousands of visitors and tourists who flock there every summer to experience art and architecture. But Covid-19 put paid to that idea since there are a lot fewer visitors than in other years.
Linda Tegg’s artwork, Infield was conceived before the pandemic but, continues Kieran Long “all good artworks, it has taken on new meanings as events have unfolded. It suggests, for instance, how public space might look without humans, even looks forward to ‘re-wilded’ city, as the pandemic constrains our movement and makes us paranoid about our fellow citizens. But Infield is also a living meadow, a place of diverse animal and plant life, and works, even with social distancing, as a public place of repose and reflection. It is also a work that asks profound questions about the future of public space in Sweden at a time when these questions could not be more relevant.”
The plants in the Infield green installation by Linda Tegg are representative of those found in Sweden’s infields, which are enclosed meadows often adjacent to a farm. Here, cattle used to keep the fields fertilized and, in turn, the plants were harvested as hay. This natural cycle gave rise to tremendous biodiversity. If an infield is abandoned, nature takes over, and the land is soon reforested but there are only a small number of these unique habitats remaining in Sweden today.
Made up from sixty different plants species native to Sweden, Infield is an installation that explores the relationship between people and nature. Too often, nature is only admitted as an exception, particularly in towns and cities, as the famous French garden designer and botanist, Gilles Clément says. The installation combines multiple perspectives: art, science, horticulture, and the plants themselves. Through the construction of Infield and the flora and fauna it facilitates, Linda Tegg hopes to open up a space for questioning how we relate to, and act within, our shared environment. The installation helps us to imagine how we might promote additional green space for more life and biodiversity in cities too. Particularly at a time when we are rediscovering the importance of green space in our collective living environments.

The Infield project represents the first work in Sweden by the internationally renowned artist Linda Tegg who, among other acclaimed projects, represented Australia at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. The installation at Exercisplan, an ample outdoor space located at the entrance of ArkDes on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, is accessible even when the museum is closed. The artwork forms a part of the ongoing collaboration between ArkDes and the Swedish Government to promote strategies for liveable cities.

Christiane Bürklein

Infield installation
by Linda Tegg
from 2 June to 27 September 2020
ArkDes, Stockholm, Sweden
Images: see captions - Johan Delin, Andy Liffner
Find out more: https://arkdes.se/en/