Choreographer who wants to archive dance art

Motivation: 

As one of Sweden’s most renowned and outspoken choreographers, Gun Lund has, since the 1960s, worked to raise awareness of dance as an art form among politicians, researchers and the general public. She has created a stable infrastructure for the dance scene in western Sweden and run three venues with international reach. Lund has a long-standing relationship with the Faculty of Humanities through studies in archival theory and art history, teaching in aesthetics, and participation in seminars and research projects. She masterfully translates theoretical knowledge into artistic events, such as when she, inspired by ideas of participation, handed over control of her choreographies to the dancers. With boundless curiosity, broad humanistic learning and a unique ability to explore the intersections of art and science, Gun Lund is a model advocate for culture as a form of knowledge.

Gun Lund says she has always known she was a dancer.

– Yes, ever since I was a very small child. I was always moving around and had to plead with my parents to let me go to dance school. My father wanted me to become a concert pianist, but when I finally started dancing at age 12, it felt like coming home. I knew that was where I belonged. I studied classical ballet throughout my teens, alongside social dancing and basketball – I even helped start the first basketball league in Gothenburg.

She sees dance as a form of embodied knowledge, much like the hands-on skill of a carpenter. It comes from practising the same movements day after day, year after year.

– But then you still have to enter into it and discover everything for the first time. We need to uncover the mystery of the ordinary. I work a lot with banal, everyday movements, but something changes when you bring them to the stage. Then you’ve discovered the universe! I’ve always tried to strip things down to get close to the absolute essentials.

Dance for space

Many of Gun Lund’s works are created for specific locations—cliffs, rooftops or industrial buildings.

– I have two ways of working. Either I have an idea and look for a space that suits it, or I find a space and figure out what should be done there. I explore the space and always start by measuring it with my body as a tool, moving through it in a spiral and sensing the space. The space and I need to find a balance.

One example is the work I Gudars Skymning (In the Twilight of the Gods), performed on the cliffs of Vadholmen in Kungälv, where she used to play as a child.

–  I’ve worked a lot with the encounter with stone. I imagine that stone has witnessed so much, accumulated so many stories. I’m fascinated by that sense of time flowing through it. I’m also interested in architecture and form – it’s about letting the dancers connect the buildings, creating a link between them.

Dance and research

Gun Lund has collaborated extensively with researchers and integrated scientific concepts into her works. In the early 2000s she earned a master’s degree in Art & Technology at Chalmers, where the aim was to combine technology and computer science with the arts to achieve synergy.

Her thesis work became the performance Good Vibrations, which is still being performed. In it, the dancers were equipped with receivers on their joints, and the audience held transmitters that sent vibrations to determine where the movement should begin.

– That way the dancers and audience entered a bubble where it felt like they were connected. It’s about communication and dialogue, she says.

– I wanted to prove that one can communicate just as well through movement as through words, and it became a kind of lecture demonstration.

She sees many shared interests between artists and researchers.

– It’s about exploring the conditions of life. But while most researchers focus on something specific, artists often have a more holistic perspective. I learned how both could enrich each other.

The role of dance in society

Advocating for the role of dance in society has always been a natural part of Gun Lund’s work. Her activism began in the 1970s with a free group she co-founded with other young women attending evening dance classes.

– There were no role models – we were the first. We had to do everything ourselves because there was no one to ask. We created a children’s show and toured with it for years. Eventually we realised we needed a venue, so we started applying for funding – from the municipality, the Swedish Arts Council and so on. I engaged with politicians and civil servants – I’m part of the ’68 generation and have always spoken out, submitted responses to inquiries and stayed politically involved.

She and her husband Lars have always shared an interest in the political dimensions of art.

– But it could just as well be football or something else! For someone, following a football team can be just as important as dance is for me, says Gun Lund, before revealing that she supports ÖIS (Örgryte IS) and reminiscing about the time Gunnar Gren visited Unga Atalante, which she helped found.

Future challenges

There is no shortage of challenges for dance as an art form. It was not until the 1990s that dance was given its own heading in the national cultural policy bill; previously it had simply been lumped in under “theatre.”

– That’s still so recent! And now they’re removing the arts programmes from upper secondary schools – it’s a step backwards! At the same time, every event seems to require a dance element, but I want dance to be valued in its own right. Those who do come to performances are often deeply moved, but they’re not that many. Dance needs to be everywhere – and in all its diversity.

She is also concerned about the situation for ageing dancers in the West.

– In Asia or Mexico, older dancers are respected and remain an integral part of the scene. Here they’re pushed aside. Next year I’ll be focusing a lot on the situation of older dancers, and I have colleagues in Cologne who’ve conducted research on this.

Archiving dance

Gun is now thinking a lot about how to preserve dance works for the future. She wants to create an “archive for the art of the moment.”

– It’s based on the belief that the art is more important than the creator. It’s the works – not Gun Lund – that matter. I see them as my children, and I asked myself: what happens when I can no longer take care of them? Then they need to become independent. What’s archived from dance is usually photos, programmes and articles—not the dance itself. Perhaps video recordings, at best.

Her idea is to create a new kind of archive where the works are continuously restaged.

– I wanted to see what would happen if dancers who’ve worked with me for a long time got to choose what to restage. They were given materials such as my notes, video recordings, and of course their own memories – and I only attended the premiere. I’m now writing a major report on this, which will result in a proposal on how to move forward.

A role model in this work is Rolf de Maré, leader of the Ballets Suédois in Paris. He had a house where he gathered extensive material, travelled the world to buy sets and so on.

– The important thing is to have a place – a centre for the art of the moment. The dancing archive. If I don’t create it myself, I probably won’t ever get to experience it.

Dance in social context

– My vision is that the works I’ve created will still have something to say in the future, but we must find a format that makes them meaningful for future audiences. If they have a vital core, they’ll find a new form. If not, I suppose they’ll just be left to drift in an archive, she laughs.

Her dream is to create such an archive—and that it would also include works by her colleagues.

– It would be wonderful to see them alive – and not just on video!

She is also deeply interested in historical perspective, and has, for example, collected everything written about dance since the 1960s, especially from the Gothenburg press.

– I’m interested in what was happening in the world at the same time and how that shaped artistic expression. Why did Isadora Duncan do what she did? It’s all about context, says Gun, who believes the turbulent times we’re living through will be reflected across all art forms in the years to come.

Text: Johanna Hillgren

Archivist Karl-Magnus Johansson has also been named Honorary Doctor of the Faculty of Humanities 2025. Link to an interview with him: Honorary doctor who spreads archival joy