Ingen främling: Legend i glas och situationens logik

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates how Vicke Lindstrand’s public sculpture Legend i glas, located in Teaterparken in Växjö, can be related to its location and spatial context in terms of meaning, function and reception. Central questions asked are: How do changes in the direct surroundings affect the situation of reception? How does that affect the meaning and function of the sculpture? To what extent is meaning and function bound to a specific location? When Legend i glas was inaugurated the 12th of August 1978 Teaterparken was fairly empty and mostly covered with grass and trees. Fast forward 20 or so years and the changes are blatant, with massive building complexes surrounding the sculpture on both sides and in the back, which limits the situation of reception in a practical meaning. This also combats how the sculpture itself is encouraging the beholder to behave or act in relation to the sculpture, and thus how the sculpture is received. The investigation also shows that Legend i glas is in fact bound to its site, but not in a strict manner, rather a flexible one. It represents S:t Sigfrid, who according to the legend christened the city of Växjö in the 11th century, and is today a well established symbol of the city as it is its patron saint and thus occurs – textually or visually – in various representative contexts. The material, glass, also has a special status in Växjö, a city with a multifaceted glass tradition and considered the capital of the so-called “Kingdom of Crystal” (swe: Glasiket). By gathering and articulating such meanings, Legend i glas becomes site-specific, but in a wide sense, not entirely physical or empirical in nature as used to be the case. Because of these somewhat site-specific meanings, Legend i glas can be claimed to serve as an object of identification. The architect Christian Norberg-Schulz claims that true sense of belonging requires identification, which is made possible through the identity of the place. And by being a concrete manifestation of these meanings of identity value for the city, Legend i glas could be claimed to function as an object of identification – at least in theory.