North by Southeast Residency: Sam Smith on Gotland Island #4, People and Places

Sam Smith is currently working with the community of Gotland Island in Sweden, as part of the Spaced North by Southeast program.

Sam Smith currently lives and works in London. Upcoming exhibitions include: Ways of Looking, Gallery of Contemporary Art, E-WERK, Freiburg; and Glasgow International 2016 at The Telfer Gallery. Recent projects include: Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra; Screen Space, Melbourne; De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; Australian Centre for Moving Image, Melbourne; Sandefjord Kunstforening and Larvik Kunstforening, Norway; Jupiter Woods, London; and insitu, Berlin (all 2015); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; The Artists’ Film Biennial, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; The Royal Standard, Liverpool; and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (all 2014). He was selected for FOKUS 2015, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2015) and Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (2014-2015). From 2013 to 2014 he was part of the International Studio Programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Here, Sam shares an update from Gotland Island.

Archaeologists, a cultural geographer, a stone carver, quarry workers, tourists and the caretaker of Ingmar Bergman’s estate. These are a few of the people I’ve met over the past week which has been packed with field trips to all corners of Gotland, from Fårö in the north to Hoburgsgubben (Old Man Hoburg) at the southern most tip.

At start of the week, Helena from Baltic Art Center and I drove up to visit the film studios at Fårösund and onwards to the island of Fårö which is connected by a short car ferry. Here, the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman lived for 40 years and he made four films, two documentaries and a TV series on the island. We were given a guided tour of the locations from Through a Glass Darkly (1960) and Persona (1966), his purpose-built cinema, his grave, and finally the house he built in Hammars.

A few days later I set out to the farthest southerly point of Hoburg where a rock formation is said to resemble an old man (only when seen from the perfect angle). On the way there, on the East coast of the Sundre peninsula, I turned the corner of a small dusty road to be greeted by two young soldiers with machine guns. I was ushered to stop and rolled down my window. They informed me that it would be “not recommended” to continue this way as they were running military exercises with high levels of radiation. After a well scrutinised five-point-turn in the narrow road I skirted the site. Later in the day I noticed a helicopter flying manoeuvres overhead.

On the east coast, relatively near the bottom is an area called Närsholmen, where Andrei Tarkovsky shot his final film, Sacrifice (1986) after he was denied access to the landscapes of Bergman’s Fårö by the militar

Twice this week I went to the university campus to meet with a geographer and an archaeologist. They both spent time with me offering their unique views on Gotland and its history. The geographer, Tom, had lots to say about how the natural resources have been circulated and traded. Along with the limestone, he spoke of the forest and the water as resources that have been manipulated. The stone cannot be seen in isolation, but is part of a broader ecosystem.

At the end of the week I spent a great day traversing the north. Starting at 7am at a stone workshop where massive chucks of limestone were being sliced into floor stones. With a local stone carver as my guide, I was shown two of the active quarries where they now use giant saws to cut down into the stone, but in the past, they used to drill thousands of holes and then crack it apart from the top in a much slower process. Afterwards, I went across to the former military peninsula of Bungenäs which is now owned by one person. The landmass has restricted vehicle access and the massive quarrying is evident in the steep cliffs and small lakes that have formed beneath. The spot is now dotted with expensive summer homes and modern conversions of old bunkers. Lastly, I visited a small island connected by a short bridge, called Furillen. This as well was a former quarry and the old buildings show the immense scale of the former industry. The buildings, of course, now form part of a luxury hotel.

-Sam Smith