A Different Kind of Dog: a Swedish rondellhund

SWEDISH TRAFFIC CIRCLE DOGS (RONDELLHUND in Swedish)

When the problems of daily life are not about surviving physically, you may look for ways to survive mentally. Perhaps you are bored. Perhaps Sudoku is not filling your need for a mental challenge.
Join the Swedes!

Make a traffic circle dog, sneak out in the middle of the night and place your little wooden doggie in the middle of a traffic circle and see what happens!

How to make the dog? No problem! You use pieces of wood you have at home, hammer the pieces together to make your creation look like a dog, and perhaps add a little paint.

The tricky part is to get it to one of the traffic circles without being discovered. That is part of the game.

This Swedish pasttime started in March 2006. A Swedish artist named Stina Opitz was paid and made a concrete sculpture of a dog. It was named "Circulation 2" and the authorities placed it in a traffic circle in the town Linkoeping. A sculpture to enchance the cultural life of the average citizen. Art to the masses.

In the beginning of the summer of 2006 somebody decapitated the concrete dog.The rest of the poor creature was removed by the authorities. End of chapter one.

Chapter two. An unknown person placed a homemade wooden doggie in that same traffic circle. A cultural protest by one person? The beginning of the doggie movement in Sweden!

Because suddenly other rough homemade doggies started to appear in other traffic circles, from the far north to the far south.

Local newspapers were delighted to report that now their town also had a rondellhund.

One commented that this way the general public could show how they cared for and wanted to contribute to public places.
Another pointed out that this proved that those artists paid by the authorities for their sculptures were paid far too much for what "others" could do as well.

In one case, the wooden doggie was hit by a car, partly destroyed and the pieces put on the stairs of a veterinarian. Please repair the doggie!

Sweden's most beautiful rondellhund was declared as being in the town Karlstad, but oy wey, was kidnapped!

The Swedish website http://www.rondellhund.se defines a "rondellhund" (traffic circle dog) as "non professional sculpture shaped as a dog or another animal in selfchosen material, that often is situated in a public place, preferably in a traffic circle, under the cover of the night". You may want to check out that website to see some of the models!

Enjoy a rondellhund! Perhaps you will make one where you live?