For more than a century the sound of shipyard sledgehammers echoed throughout Gothenburg like a great heartbeat. Ships from around the world were built and repaired here. Today it can be hard to imagine the jumble of cranes, docks and ships that strecthed from Lundbyhamnen dock all the way out to älvsborg bridge. At their peak in the late 1960s, the four shipyards Götaverken, Lindholmens varv, Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad and Götaverken Arendal employed nearly 15,000 people.
Through photograper Lena Öritsland’s portraits and art photographs and journalist Maria Baard’s texts and interviews, this exhibition brings you face to face with people and memories from Gothenburg’s shipyard era.
I was coming down from the crane when I slipped on a step and lost my footing. I fell seven metres and hit the ladder a couple of times in the fall. I thought, ‘What will happen to my son? Is this how it’s going to end?‘
Kerstin Rundström
Crane operator
When I came back to the shipyard from doing my military service, I got a new workmate – Holger vilden [Holger the Savage]. I’ve never seen anything like how that man worked. He was strong as a bear and worked like a savage, even though he was much older than me.
Lasse Lindgren
Sheet-metal worker
The exhibition is displayed next to the shop and café during summer and autumn, 2024.
