-
Ett osynligt pumpverk
-
Entre azul y buenas noches
-
Vanity of vanities
-
Vista caracol
-
Downward facing spiral
-
You´ve got nerve
-
-
- Social sculpture
Archive
Contact
About
During the summer, Centrum för Social Skulptur invited twelve artists, architects, and performers to gather, exchange, and work together aboard the floating restaurant Sea Palace at Högmarsö Shipyard, north of Stockholm.
The Floating Sea Palace was built in Shanghai as a three-storey Chinese restaurant and brought to Europe in the early 1990s, travelling between different European ports before the restaurant project failed and the ship was left to decay in Gothenburg. It was later brought to Stockholm, where it was transformed into a haunted house at Gröna Lund. The ship has since become the subject and setting of several works by the artist Lap-See Lam.
Högmarsö Shipyard is located along the Furusund shipping route in the northern Stockholm archipelago, yet it resembles no other place in the region. Alongside Sea Palace, the shipyard is home to submarines, houseboats containing blacksmith workshops, icebreakers, and pirate-like wooden vessels. It is a place filled with ambitious plans and ideas embodied in boats awaiting restoration, ready to embark on new adventures. During the residency, participants lived on various boats and in houses throughout the shipyard.
As the residency took place in an abandoned restaurant, Food was one of the first questions to emerge from the place. As we learned more about the ship and its successive transformations, further questions emerged: about migration, labour, hospitality, exoticism, ownership, displacement, occupation and squatting, living with what is broken, and the different lives a place can accumulate over time. We cooked together, exchanged recipes and stories, read texts aloud, and approached the theme through our respective artistic practices, including drawing, photography, sculpture, shadow theatre, and sound.
The group brought different practices, histories, skills, perspectives and ways of being into relation with one another. Throughout the residency, each participant presented their work, and it was a rare experience to have the time and space to engage deeply with one another’s artistic practices and research questions. The site and the residency became a pocket in time—a place where otherwise unthinkable ideas and possibilities could emerge. https://centrumforsocialskulptur.se/sea-palace-recidency
Images by Andy Allen-Olivar, Elina Bry and Rasmus Richter
https://centrumforsocialskulptur.se/sea-palace-recidency
Älgö Kulturhus 2026
In July 2026, Vita, Sarah, Arri, Kevin, Elias, Elina, Marco, Nanna, Philippine, Axel, Linnea, Tuva, Andy & Rasmus gathered again for a two week residency, this time at Älgö kulturhus outside of Stockholm. During the residency we continued on the theme of the shared meal, presented recent projects and and developed new work. The residency period culminated in a public dinner at Konstakademien in central Stockholm. During the dinner,performances, burning sculptures, shadow plays and eatable artworks where presented to the guests.
Images by Andy Allen-Olivar, Elina Bry and Vita Edvards
https://centrumforsocialskulptur.se/älgö-2026
In Mexico City, street food kitchens make natural gathering places. The food is affordable, and people from different social backgrounds come together in the streets around food. The street kitchens bring life and warmth to public and communal spaces. we were missing places like this in our city. Comming back to Stockholm, we were missing places like this in the city.
Over five weekends in August and September, we sailed around the islands that make up Stockholm and served tacos from the floating restaurant Simsalabim.
We were met with enthusiasm and curiosity. People gathered around the boat, and small parties seemed to emerge out of nowhere. Throughout the month, conversations around how we use the city, what is missing from our public spaces, and how we might work together to change started around us.
https://centrumforsocialskulptur.se/simsalabim
In the summer of 2020, Felix Dahlström Persson and I discovered a floating platform outside Tyresö in Stockholm. We were frustrated by the closure of an increasing number of music venues and by a cultural landscape that seemed increasingly dominated by commercial actors and large-scale events.
Over the years, we have rebuilt and continuously transformed the platform. It has served as a stage, a restaurant, and a floating cultural house for friends, artists, musicians, and and those who happened to pass by. The platform has become a site for gathering, experimentation, and self-organized initiatives.