In bronze with a wingspan of almost four metres, Gudmar Olovson’s symbol of peace “La Colombe” stands like a landmark for seafarers on the island of Dannholmen outside Fjällbacka in the Bohuslän archipelago in southern Sweden. It was placed there because Lars Schmidt and Ingrid Bergman, both close friends of the artist and his family, saw the island as their place on earth. It was Lars Schmidt, Bergman’s husband at the time, who wanted to draw attention to work for peace in the Balkans and asked Gudmar Olovson for help. The sculpture was air-lifted to Dannholmen by helicopter in summer 1996. Peder Wallenberg donated another example of the motif which is placed in El Quseir in Egypt facing the border to Israel, as a symbol of peace between the countries.

”La Colombe” spreads out its wings and seems to be about to rise from the earth and fly, free, up into the blue sky. Despite the weight of the material, Olovson has skilfully managed to capture the upward movement and the lightness of the bird.

The dove is a symbol that has been found through practically the entire history of art, symbolising peace or the Holy Spirit since the first Christian art was conceived. Many of the paintings and images depicting the Annunciation, the moment when the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to be the mother of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, show the Holy Spirit as a dove. Another dove that features in Christianity is the one that Noah releases from the ark. Since then, a dove bearing an olive branch in its beak has come to be a symbol of peace. In modern, more secular art, the dove is a recurring subject seen in works by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Magritte.