new exhibition

Shipyard memories

In the photographic exhibition Shipyard memories you meet people and memories from Gothenburg’s major, world-renowned shipbuilding industries. An extensive series of portraits, art photos, interviews, quotations and sound recordings, lets us step straight into a unique world through the lens of photographer Lena Öritsland’s camera and texts by journalist Maria Bard.

The exhibition provides a personal, visual insight into workaday life and day-to-day living at Gothenburg’s renowned shipyards – Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad, Götaverken, Lindholmens Varv and Arendalsvarvet. Men and women, workers and academics from a multitude of different professions recount stories both trivial and dramatic.

Lena Öritsland trained as a photographer at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and Maria Bard trained as a journalist at the University of Gothenburg. The exhibition is produced by the Maritime Museum & Aquarium and will be presented in the south wing from the museum’s new inauguration in 2022 until 14 January 2024.

Once, a workmate and I had to weld a herring lift on a Russian fishing boat. The job took two weeks. My God, did we stink when we went to the canteen. Nobody would come near us. We worked on top of funnels, too. They were full of exhaust pipes and flues. One pipe might stink of shit, the next cooking smells or diesel. […] It wasn’t a job for people who like to stay spick-and-span, but I loved it and I still miss it every day.

Sirpa Mäkitalo, welder at Eriksberg and Götaverken from 1973 to 1988, and Götaverken Cityvarvet from 2005 to 2014