219.eng

Project 219. Sebastian’s playful fruit. The Fruit Park™

As a project during Cultural Capital year of 1998 I got the opportunity of realizing my idea of creating a playground consisting of sculptures. This resulted in Sebastian’s Playful Fruit, or the Fruit Park™, as it is referred to in daily speech. Fourteen giant-sized fruit sculptures intended as play-objects for children of all ages, which, for well neigh on 10 years now, stands permanently installed in Stockholm’s Liljeholms park.

The fruit park™ has received an enormous feed-back, from both children and parents alike, and has become a well known excursion site for crèches and families in the whole of the region of Stockholm, from Södertälje to Vallentuna and Vaxholm. That it has also become one of the factors taken into account when families with children choose an area to reside in, is something which I myself hadn’t dared imagine. That since its inauguration, in the spring of 1998, up until the turn of the present century, 200,000 children have played in it is something which stands as testimony to what happens when you focus on, and have the stamina to carry out, a vision. The Fruit Park™ fulfils current norms when it comes to safety (SS 991010 – 17).

In many ways The Fruit Park™ is a reaction to the playgrounds of today where I think one has, far too one-sidedly, prioritised the playground’s functional aspects at the expense of its appearance, colour and form. A playground, for me, is not just a collection of gadgets, it is a place which should stimulate play and fantasy, with objects which are exciting to look at and touch. This was the point of departure when I began to work on The Fruit Park™. My ambition at the same time was to create a playground which worked as an interesting meeting place for people in the area and which in addition would add aesthetic value to the surrounding area. Thus The Fruit Park™ should be a meeting place for children and adults, for play and art, for partaking in both play and art alike.

Photo; Peter Jönsson

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JOHAN FERNER STRÖM