This Town Has Hung A Huge Tree Upside Down

October 10, 2023

It must have committed treeson.

In a charming town in central Sweden, residents and visitors alike were recently treated to a delightful surprise when they hung a massive tree upside down.

It's called "Die for you" and is an artist's take on modernity, humanity and nature.

upside down tree sweden
Credit: u/Beggar-Hero on Reddit

30 years ago, many Stockholmers were greeted by a spectacular sight when they strolled down Drottninggatan, at Sergels torg – an upside-down oak hanging between the houses. The oak tree was one of the artist Charlotte Gyllenhammar's very first works of art, Dö för dig, and made many people encounter art in a new way.

This autumn, the artwork was re-performed in a collaboration between the artist, the Norwegian Arts Council and Stockholm art.

Die for you is the starting point for Gyllenhammar's method of recasting the perspectives to investigate the conditions of human existence and the artistic creation process.

"The oak hanging upside down looks like a bolt from the blue. So clear was my vision of the tree in 1993," Gyllenhammar said. "It also resembles an hourglass or the eternal number 8. This cyclical figure calls for repetition and return. Now after 30 years, I am returning together with the original team to re-hang an oak tree from Roslagen at Sergels torg."

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