Det första äventyret (The First Adventure)

A little boy sits on a giant turtle, pulling on a string around the neck of the animal as if he is trying to tame it. The title of the work is indicative of an era when boys at play were seen as little adventurers. That we are witnessing the first adventure suggests that more adventures will follow, and we can imagine that the hardships will grow more challenging and extensive as the boy himself grows and becomes older.

David Wretling’s sculpture engages us with the children’s literature of the 1940s and feels almost as if it were depicting a scene from The Famous Five or one of Astrid Lindgren’s tales about exotic South Sea islands. Adventure is fun and exciting, but sometimes exciting adventures come at someone else’s cost. Sometimes the adventure genre can be experienced as fantasies where only boys are allowed to stand out. And does it really look like the tortoise is enjoying being ridden like a beast of burden?

On the sand playground nearby, contemporary artists Jelena Rundqvist and Basem Zammam have made two new giant turtles of natural stone and concrete. These turtles seem to be getting along well with humans and today’s children can themselves play at riding on their backs.

Wretling’s sculpture is made of bronze, but he also made a stone version of the sculpture, which is located in Stocksund in Danderyd. The bronze version was made in 1943 but purchased by the housing association Stiftelsen Hyresbostäder (which later became ÖBO) in 1950. The work was stolen in 1999 but was recovered three years later.