The winner of the July 22 Memorial sites competition has been announced. Jonas Dahlberg, an artist known for exploring the relationship between physical and psychological spaces, will create a dramatic ‘wound’ or ‘cut’ in the Sørbråten landscape, reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died in the 2011 Utøya massacre.
The three-and-a-half-metre wide excavation will recreate the physical experience of something being taken away, in turn paying tribute to the 69 victims of Anders Behring Breivik.
A statement from the jury for Public Art Norway said: “Dahlberg’s proposal for Sørbråten is artistically highly original and interesting. It is capable of conveying and confronting the trauma and loss that the 22 July events resulted in in a daring way.”
One hundred cubic metres of the stone cut from Sørbråten will also be transferred to the governmental quarter in Oslo. Here, another memorial will mark the spot where a car bomb was detonated by Breivik that resulted in a further eight deaths.
The jury, which included John Hestnes, a representative from the National Support Group for victims of attacks, added: “The sites will evoke the sense of sudden loss combined with the long-term missing and remembrance of those who perished. The proposal is radical and brave, and evokes the tragic events in a physical and direct manner.”
