The Lithuanian artists Augustas Serapinas was invited to research the museum collections and visited different kinds of hidden and forgotten spaces, in the museum storage and around Gotland’s house museums. What finally caught the artist’s interest was the demarcations between what classifies as heritage and requires special care from the museum staff and the objects and environments that exist outside the museum collections. The artist has visualised his thoughts in a sculpture built with traditional “standtune” fencing technique by the work team from the local Bunge museum association. The fence is a living heritage and might also have been used for defense purposes.

This ancient technique is now supporting a 4-meter-high sculpture that encircles the museum building in the courtyard of the Gotland Museum in Visby. Is it a defence or a sculpture? And which objects should be let into the museum collections? The latter is a constantly recurring issue for the Gotland Museum’s collection managers who decide on these complex issues brought forth by Augustas Serapina’s sculpture. Who has the power to decide on our common cultural heritage and what should be in the museums’ collections and exhibitions? Which objects should stay on one or the other side of the “fence” – border?