The starting point for the exhibition "Kungen har ett hem" (The King has a home) was a visit to Nykarleby earlier the year 2010. Here for we created a paper copy of an sculpture that was made by kids after the Gustav Adolf sculpture in their Swedish hometown Sundsvall and is presented in the museum of the city.
As Gustav Adolf has founded Nykarleby himself - through sending a letter of rights - but has never visited the place afterwards, the basic idea was showing him in form of the paper puppet around, how this place looks nowadays. We used a transport trailer and starting at the 1st of May drove through the village in the following weeks. From the May parade to shopping in the local supermarket all aspect were covered. And at the same time the inhabitants became used to this surreal procession. Meeting the king at the market and having a chat became a routine.
At the near end of "Faeltaget: Gustav Adolf (Papers-mache)" the Kings assistant attached a little piece of paper on his breast saying "Kungen soeker hem" (the king is looking for a home) to find a place for the figure, where it could stay. So the people who run the local summer cafe where happy to provide the future housing, what is quite particular. Brostugan (Bridge shed) is a forme custom station, placed just at the historic bridge of Nykarleby, and is since 1926 in use as a Coffee place. For years the local teacher seminar provided most of the customers, but today it has become a local meeting place for the village. Architecturally a simple wood building, the interior is decorated with a fabulous wall drawing by .... (1941), who was then a student at the local seminar for art teacher.

"Gurre" Gustav Adolf was happily left in his new home, where he quickly started a relationship with Edith, a stand in for the founder of the Cafe.

For the exhibition "Kungen har ett hem" we updated the wall panorama with framed drawings hung on top of it. Most of them showing private houses in style of a pragmatic Functionalism that is typical for the region. But also the local water tower and the fire station became part of the updated picture of Nykarleby. One corner was turned into the Gustav Adolf Hall - a big signage in brodery titling it, where documents of his stay where exhibited. Additional curtains were installed to compose the existing wall drawings, by highlighting or covering parts of it.

On the outside a terrace was improvised with the help of old tiles, that were in use as hockey floor at the local sports arena. A old flag, marking the water ways in the harbour, was now blowing over the scene, where Gustav Adolf would stand when the weather was nice during the opening hours of he Cafe "Brostugan".