ABSTRACT
What is it in public art that often provokes so much hostility? Particularly, what was provocative about the proposals for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial (hereafter referred to as ALM) in the town of Vimmerby, Sweden? This art project, after years of preparation and a dispute that mainly took place in the local newspaper between the years 2002 and 2007, created an opinion that caused the realization of two memorials instead of one: Marie-Louise Ekman’s life-size portrait sculpture of the famous author, which was not part of the initial commission, and Berit Lindfeldt’s sculptural installation Well Astrid/Wild Rose, the winning proposal placed by the vicarage in Näs near Lindgren’s birthplace, originally intended for the Town Square.1
