Crystal gets a home at Björkudden

to honor the house’s most well-known owners. By introducing air into the crystal during the glass-casting, the finished crystal glass has the character of ice. This underlines a similarity to time itself, operating outside of any normal laws. When the bar is lit, a brilliant gold light illuminates through the crystal shafts like champagne, bubbles with double-meaning. The bar was inaugurated with a celebration in the winter of 2016, one year after Sisyfos acquired the house.

Bertil Vallien – Blue Wand

After another successful collaboration, the idea was born for Kosta Boda’s own Bertil Vallien to create a piece for the house. His thought was to, in a respectable way, elevate the house’s current story by combining the old with the new. He quickly selected the location for the work in the monumental staircase, a placement that allows the viewer a new perspective of the work when going up or down the stairs. The theme was the house itself, and the archetypical form was a rod – a common theme in much of Bertil Vallien’s artwork. The rod in itself is a symbol for strength; Björkudden having stood as the one constant in all of the life-threads woven together in that place, represented in the faces on the sides of the rod. The composition is crowned with an obsidian-black house and above it a Janus face blinking backward and forward in an unknown world. The composition was created by Bertil Vallien after a long conversation with Olle Larsson. According to him, it can be seen as reflecting the present manager of Björkudden: a person who has an active relationship to the story, present and future, but also gives visitors a chance to see a poetic interpretation of the thoughts behind Sisyfos.

Kjell Engman – and even more

In 2018, work is ongoing with yet another reflection of Björkudden. This time it is the mystic Kjell Engman, known for his poetic reflections in glass that always pushes the impression of what can be done in this fleeting and simultaneously time-resistant material. As this book is being written, the concept for his work remains a secret. But to give you the chance to see more of the existing work and, when Kjell Engman’s work has been put in place, take part in future artwork, we have some technological assistance. Hold your smartphone up to scan the QR-code and see what you can find. During 2018 it will lead to videos about the crystal work at Björkudden. In a hundred years, we will see...

Before and after