Artwork: Sten Dunérs’ stone labyrinth

Sten Dunér painted
many landscapes and gardens with surrealist elements, inserting various foreign
objects (usually spheres) into the images. He wanted to question our perception
of reality. The role of the unexpected spheres is to irritate the viewer and
force us to realise that the image is not as straightforward as first thought.

The balance between
reality and unreality is often a strong feature of his paintings, which are
often ambiguous and open to interpretation. Sten Dunér was previously a
professor of art theory at Konstfack (University of Arts, Crafts and Design) in
Stockholm and is represented at the Nationalmuseum (Sweden’s Museum of Art and Design),
Moderna Museet (Modern Art Museum) in Stockholm and Skissernas Museum (Museum
of Artistic Process and Public Art) in Lund. In 1992, Sten Dunér redesigned
Åbroparken in Värnamo using colours and shapes taken from his paintings.

In selected places
there were smooth, blue stones, and a glass ball on a white plinth reflected
the surroundings. They no longer exist, but the stone labyrinth in the centre
of the park can still be experienced. It is modelled on the famous labyrinth at
Knossos in Crete. The large stone in the centre was previously illuminated,
giving it a mysterious appearance.