Artists Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström of Bigert & Bergström have created an egg-shaped sauna to be installed at Luossabacken in Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town as a commission by Sweden’s Riksbyggen.
Bigert & Bergström Egg-Shaped Solar Sauna
Riksbyggen is a cooperative company that develops new and attractive housing environments. They also happen to be one of Sweden’s largest property managers, with tenant-owner associations and commercial and public property owners as customers.
The Solar Egg has been designed as a social sculpture where local people and visitors to the town can meet and converse, not to mention sweat. Bigert & Bergström have taken the tradition of the sauna, a key structure for the arctic climate of Lapland, and developed a sculptural symbol that prompts thoughts of rebirth and an incubator to nurture conversation and the exchange of ideas.
The project is a continuation of the artists’ strategy to incorporate the climate into the experience of their artwork, which began with the Climate Chambers they created in 1994 and followed by Climate Chambers II in 1998.
The egg is made out of stainless golden mirror sheeting, its multifaceted form breaking up the surroundings that it reflects into a multiplicity of different mirror images.
The egg’s interior has been formed out of wood, with the wall panels and floor decking made out of pine and the bench of aspen.
In the centre of the egg stand the wood-heated, heart-shaped sauna stove made out of iron and stone. The temperature inside the egg varies between 75° and 85° Celsius.
If you’d like to visit and take a schvitz, the Solar Egg can be booked in Kiruna, Sweden through Camp Ripan (Campingvägen 5SE 981 35 Kiruna).
About
Bigert & Bergström is an artist duo living and working in Stockholm, Sweden. They met while at the art academy in Stockholm in 1986 and have collaborated ever since. Through their career B&B have produced and created art ranging from large-scale installations to public works, sculptures and film projects. Often with a conceptual edge, the core of their work is placed right in the junction between humanity, nature and technology. With energetic curiosity their art investigate scientific and social topics discussed in contemporary society.
Photos: Jean-Baptiste Béranger