Norway will cut through an island in tribute to massacre victims
Source: The Verge
How do you adequately craft a memorial for one of the worst days in a country's modern history? That's the question that was posed to architects and artists as part of a competition for a dual-site memorial commemorating the attacks in Norway on July 22nd, 2011. On that day, 77 people were killed, eight by an Oslo car bomb and 69 in a massacre at a youth event on the island of Utøya. After holding an open competition, Norway has decided to install a pair of memorials designed by Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the attacks.
As Bustler reports, Dahlberg's proposal for an Utøya memorial is at once simple and striking. An 11-foot (3.5 meter) cut will be made in the nearby headland at Tyrifjorden, forever separating it from the mainland with the water that now surrounds it. This cut represents the loss of life caused by the attack by literally removing a chunk of the country's land and figuratively carving an unhealable wound into its landscape.
Visitors to the memorial, which is titled Memory Wound, will by guided down a pathway through the island's forest into a tunnel that leads to the wound. The tunnel ends abruptly at the cut, where visitors will be able to see to the other side. Opposite this viewing window will be the names of all those who lost their lives on July 22nd. "The names will be close enough to see and read clearly," explains Dahlberg, "yet ultimately out of reach. This cut is an acknowledgement of what is forever irreplaceable."
The earth, plants, and trees removed through excavating the cut will be transferred to Oslo, where it will act as the foundation for the city's memorial. The Oslo tribute comprises a contemplative path situated alongside an existing busy walkway. The memorial will take visitors off their regular path but ultimately lead them in the right direction. It speaks to the massive impact the attacks had on the everyday lives of Norwegians, but concludes that although we should take time to remember what happened, life must carry on.
Read more: http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/3/6/5476944/norway-will-cut-through-an-island-in-tribute-to-massacre-victims
If America had the balls to do this at our gun culture massacre sites, our country would be crisscrossed with 'wounds.'
The memorial itself is jarring. Don't think I would do that to an island. But we are used to mass gun shootings. Europe, not so much, so the jarring wound may be simply how they view it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Just dropped in to post an insult, did we?
What's next on your to-do list today?
Does it have to do with insects and their wings?
'Zactly.
As are all memorials... at least the ones which may offend our personal biases. 
You know my background and among artists I think architects, at least many of them, are the most arrogant of the lot with enormous schemes that are their "personal statement".
I like the design, I like the project proposal.
I like it best on paper.
Knowing construction projects the way I do, and having a deep respect for things like sea critters, all I can see is the mud and destruction and diesel fumes that will have to go into such a project.
All to make, in the end, a personal statement.
It's not worth it-- there are far better and more environmentally friendly ways to honor the lives lost and make a statement about the madness that took place.
it is about truth. this is brutally honest. people tend to recoil from that sort of honesty, especially about something that is so horrendous. understandable. but such an honest representation will result in much quiet confrontation. confrontation of evil.
it is a personal statement. but it is the sort of deeply honest personal statement that touches many persons.
we must confront evil.
and yeah, architects. but come on. you have been to chicago. it is the best of what humans can do. celebrate that.
If the island already has "little critters" then they are all capable of managing
the new change to their environment. Nature views a gap with water at the bottom as
an inconvenience, not an insurmountable obstacle (as a road cutting complete with
fast moving traffic would be, for example).
Can I remind you that the OP clearly states that the memorial is "an 11-foot (3.5 meter) cut"?
They're not talking about planting a field of corn in the middle of the forest or of creating
a bottomless chasm where no creature dare venture ...
> The tunnel ends abruptly at the cut, where visitors will be able to see to the other side.
> Opposite this viewing window will be the names of all those who lost their lives on July 22nd.
> "The names will be close enough to see and read clearly yet ultimately out of reach."
Excellent concept.
> The earth, plants, and trees removed through excavating the cut will be transferred to Oslo,
> where it will act as the foundation for the city's memorial.
Again, excellent approach to ensure that the activity on the island is not merely creating
waste to be dumped somewhere out of sight but is rather being used for a double purpose:
not only transplanting the loss of the island into the city but avoiding the additional mining
and transport for the foundation that would otherwise have been required.
Full marks to Dahlberg (the artist) and the judges on that panel.
Why all this hoo-hah over some other county's design for a memorial? Is this just how DU rolls these days?
I didn't realize from the first link that it wasn't to be built on the island itself, and it appears that the peninsula section might not be nearly as wide as the island.
This means that there should be significantly less disruption and as it's part of the mainland might be something that more people can visit without taking a boat.
Still, the engineering involved to install dead vertical retaining walls is significant, but far less intensive than a slice through a 26 acre island might have been.
Odd how everybody wants to jump my ass for having an opinion about this, FFS.
I should have Jerry the Tapir pay a visit.
And I remember the controversy, and I remember how impressed I was seeing it for the first time.
The memorial, I'm guessing you've seen it, is actually quite understated given its scale. It's basically below grade and quite unassuming, and this adds to the drama, I think.
This is quite the opposite effect, for me, from the design for Norway at the peninsula; it's severe, not subtle, and what I can't reconcile in this age of climate change concerns (which were less well understood when the Vietnam RFP went out) is the severity on the landscape of the design. It's as though the artist is saying, "our people were murdered, therefore I shall murder some piece of the pristine Norwegian landscape nearby, aren't I brilliant?"
I think it's the opposite of what is the right thing to do, that it just multiplies the carnage.
Of course some on the board think that human statements trump respect for natural environments, and that's OK. I'm not going to call them names or anything.
Just maybe a late night visit from our five-legged friend!
Hope you're having a great year!
And it has so much meaning to the local people. I like it, lots. And soon enough tour companies from the tourist ships will bring folk here. I would like to see it, but not in a group. It seems to be a more meditative, personal kind of experience. Good job, Norway!
