Exhibition

Coastland

Plats: Upper floor

Coastland

This exhibition is about living on the Bohuslän coast and its islands, a life with the sea as a generous friend – and an uncompromising foe. With glimpses of human striving, then and now, it tells of life itself. Of anxiety, sorrow and love, pride, shame and freedom ... The story is that of Bohuslän, but we can all recognize ourselves

Life looking death in the face
There is nowhere else in Sweden like the Bohuslän coast and its islands, with their many communities where people have gained their living almost wholly from the sea. But this has been an impoverished province, dependent on weather, wind and good fishing. At times the herring have been abundant for a series of winters and brought a temporary prosperity.

The sea is a considerably more dangerous workplace than the farmer’s fields. Bohuslän has been called “widow land”, because nowhere else in Sweden have widows formed such a high proportion of the population and so many children grown up without their fathers.

The exhibition seeks to tell of the harsh reality of life in the past on a coast that now lives mainly in summer.