Art Supporting Free Speech. Swedish authors auction their artwork made at the Göteborg Book Fair to benefit PEN Sweden

Today on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, a charity auction open to all is being held featuring artwork created by writers, illustrators, poets and cartoonists created in celebration of free speech. The money collected will go to PEN Sweden, an organization giving voice to writers who are persecuted or imprisoned for their opinons.

The art was created at this year’s Göteborg Book Fair, where freedom of speech was the theme. To highlight this, Swedish book publishing group Bonnierförlagen invited writers and illustrators to create something with freedom of speech as the point of reference. The response was huge and resulted in over 30 pieces, which are now being auctioned with proceeds going to PEN Sweden.

One piece being auctioned is a four-meter-long wall painting by popular Swedish artist Jesper Waldersten. Other authors and illustrators with works being auctioned include Elaine Eksvärd, Kakan Hermansson, Per Wästbnerg, Stina Wirsén, Elin Olofsson, Malin Persson Giolito, Annika Lantz, Jennifer Clement, Johanna Ekström, Sofil Oksanen, Anna Åhlund, Jens Lapidus and Johan Unenge, among others.

“My piece is about the flow,” says Waldersten, describing the connection of his work and the connection to freedom of speech. “That you don’t need to be scared of my words. That despite dark times there is still room for humor and warmth. That we need to pick ourselves up and move forward with the feet we’ve got.”

The auction prices start from SEK 1 to SEK 100,000. The auction starts today and continues for a week under a cooperation with tradera.com.

You can take part in the auction here.