Sune Johannesson: ”For Lars Vilks, life was an ongoing work of art”

”For Lars Vilks, life was an ongoing artwork. Det sad news of his and two police officers death changes this; now the artist is dead but the art lives on.”, writes Sune Johannesson, Kristianstadbladet’s, cultural editor in a chronicle about the artist.

”Lars Vilks was as talkative, as he was imaginative, funny and a creative artist. Not least a free-thinker, who always wanted to challenge and question both boundaries, as well as genres and views”, writes Johannesson.

All the investigations that were made and decisions that were taken about his art in the nature reserve, he simply incorporated in the artwork.

The sculpture grew in different ways, both organically and as an idea.

When Vilks drew the caricature of Muhammed in 2007, everything changed. ”Nimis” was admittedly questioned and threatened, but when it came to the caricature tone changed. The seriousness, the gravity.

”And with that Vilks' life changed for ever,” Johannesson writes.

The threats against the art now became threats against the artist. The attention became worldwide. The key issues became freedom of speech and democracy.

Vilks continued to claim his right to think and create freely, while he now himself had lost his own freedom. From 2010 he had a permanent police bodyguard.