Curator Jes Fernie describes her Archive of Destruction as "a story-telling platform that brings together narratives around destruction and public art...made up of suspect categories, barely believable tales, and life-affirming strangeness. Spanning a hundred years and many continents, it tells cumulative stories of vulnerability, interference, rage, fear, boredom…
We made this video clip to show to audiences in two online events this week. On 27 January, Maddie and Mick presented The Fountain project for the annual Research Day at HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design. Earlier in the week Maddie spoke as part of a panel focused on…
[Swedish text follows English] I was in Lund for four days at the beginning of June. I stayed near the LTH campus, in a room at the University Guest House in the student accommodation complex known as "Sparta". It was designed by architect Bengt Edman and completed in…
The Swedish Public Art Agency (Statens konstråd) asked us to record a short video introducing and describing The fountain Fontänen project. Maddie speaks about it from her studio in Gothenburg. Here is the result. Statens konstråd bad oss att spela in en kort video för att introducera och beskriva The…
From journalist and art critic Jelena Zetterström's book Offentlig konst i Lund, originally published as a series of articles in Sydsvenska Dagsbladet in 1994. Zetterström writes a loop of sorrow, beginning and ending with the brief words: "It is a sorry sight"; "It is a…
[Swedish text follows English] I have a file on my laptop with 23 emails from Jan Torsten Ahlstrand. I received the first one on February 23 this year. It begins: "Dear Maddie Leach from Down Under!". The last three came in a flurry on November 20 and are…
One persistent part of the narrative around LTH-fontänen is that its 'glaslådor' (glass boxes) were subject to several attempts of "sabotage" by sling shot. Åke Holmberg, consulting engineer for the project, repeatedly cited this as the reason for the structure's failure rather than any…
This is one of my favourite images of LTH-fontänen. It appears in an article in Lördags Expressen by Kurt Karlsson on October 11 1969 with the headline ...och i Lund läcker den nya fontänen! (...and in Lund, the new fountain leaks!) "There is a storm around the 'water…
