Roundabout dog

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Roundabout dog on the huge (with swedish measures) Vallarondellen roundabout (300m in diameter), in Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden

A roundabout dog (Swedish: rondellhund, originally Östgötsk rondellhund, "Ostrogothian roundabout dog") is a form of street installation, which began occurring during the autumn of 2006 in cities and towns all over Sweden. Anonymous people put out homemade dogs, typically made of wood (or sometimes plastic, metal and textile) in roundabouts. The phenomenon has been reported all over Sweden and has also started occurring in other countries, such as Spain after it was being mentioned on Spanish television (PuntoDos).^[1] Swedish tabloid paper Expressen even placed one at Piccadilly Circus.^[2]

The Swedish paint artist Lars Vilks made a drawing depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog. This was published in a Swedish local newspaper in July 2007. It provoked accusations of blasphemy from some Muslim groups in the Middle East. See Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy.

[edit] History

The roundabout dogs started appearing in Linköping, Östergötland (and were therefore originally called de östgötska rondellhundarna), after a dog that was part of the official roundabout installation Cirkulation II (English: Circulation II) by sculptor Stina Opitz had been vandalised and later removed. The original dog was made of concrete,^[3] and Stina Opitz was to make a new version of it after the vandalism,^[4] when suddenly someone had placed a homemade wooden dog ^[5] in the same roundabout. Soon the dog was given a concrete bone^[6] by another anonymous artist. After media had reported about the homemade sculpture, the roundabout dogs started appearing in more places around the country.