Ingela Ihrman
Dialoggatan 22
126 26 HÄGERSTEN, SWEDEN
tel: +46 (0)73-7544515
www.ingelaihrman.com
ingelaihrman@hotmail.com
10 May 2013
Culture and Leisure Committee
Municipality of Bjuv
Town Hall
Mejerigatan 3
267 25 BJUV, SWEDEN
Dear Municipality of Bjuv!
Around 200 million years ago, the place we now call northwest Skåne was a shallow sea close to the earth’s equator. The lukewarm water was home to Bjuvstegocefalen (the stegocephalia from Bjuv), a metre-long amphibian with flippers. The species spent its days lurking at the bottom of the sea and sustained itself on passing insects and other prey. At some point, one individual of the species died. Its body was gradually covered with sediment, and the forces of time and pressure transformed it into a hard mineral.
Thick layers of pieces of plants accumulated around the dead animal, in a giant oxygen-free lake, slowly transforming into coal. Fast-forward to just over half a century ago, and this particular individual once again saw the light of day thanks to mining in the area. And while the fossil helped researchers explore the area’s past, the coal surrounding it helped the area boom. The small mining community grew significantly and formed today’s municipality of Bjuv.
Today – and for the foreseeable future – the stegocephalia’s home is in an archive box at the Palaeozoological Institute (dedicated to the study of life in pre-history) of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. In the 1940s, artist Sven Ekblom, with the help of scientist Tage Nilsson, produced a reconstruction in ink, putting some meat, skin texture and shaping on the stone of the fossil. The palaeontological rendering harks back to a reality that really did exist. But can we really talk about the concept of Skåne when we’re looking back 200 million years in time? Does the amphibian in the mine really come from what we now call Bjuv? And what happens to borders and definitions of origins when the continental plates themselves shift?
I hereby donate the artwork Bjuvstegocefalen – a three-dimensional, wearable reconstruction – to the Culture and Leisure Committee of the Municipality of Bjuv. I hope that the costume will be used in official settings and as such will form a part of the municipal identity. Perhaps it might open up discussions about national identity and where we live and come from?
Best wishes,
Ingela Ihrman