The
memorial consists of two artistic representations, each refering
to the other – the installation
of text cubes on Bygdoy in Oslo and the creation of a permanent
fund of finance micro-credits to help victims to establish new
livelihoods in the area where the disaster occurred.
Text The text uses polar opposites
to narrate existential human experiences. The words and word
pairs are chosen in such a way that in conjunction with the landscape
they evoke completely individual associations in the beholder.
The language chosen is English, to underline that this creation
points beyond national boundaries.
Position The
positioning of the individual text cubes harmonises with the
nature of the local landscape and reveals itself as the visitor
moves arround. The word pairs are arranged in the form of a
chiasmus (i.e. crosswise), so that in each case two concepts
on a cube face each other and relate to each other when viewed
from the land or the sea. In a later phase, two further positioning
developments are also possible, but this conception must first
be tested on the spot. One possibility here is freer spatial
positioning in the landscape, the other is a linear arrangement
along the coastline. The individual text blocks can be placed
in different ways depending on the positioning variant chosen
and the height of the terrain. This makes possible interesting
combinations of terms depending on different sightlines. The
direction in which the texts face – facing
the land or the sea – is given and unalterable.
Bodies The text cubes consist
of a weather-proof and fully dyed plastic with the writing laminated
into its surface. The material is translucent, allowing for the
option of lighting from within, to highlight the written texts
in the evening hours. The size of the inscribed cubes depends
on the length of the writing and the place in which it is positioned.
As a rough guide, 150 x 100 x 60 cm would be a typical size.
Good visibility from the sea and from land should be assured.
A steel construction and embedding in solid foundations ensure
that the cubes are well grounded and cannot topple over. The
costs of the realisation and implementation of the text cubes
amount to about of a third of the total budget.
Fund In one of the planned spaces,
a cube is missing. Instead ther is a plaque on the ground containing
a word pair and an explanatory text on the second part of the
project, the fund for micro-credits financed from the remaining
budget. The two words appear as emblems on the loan contracts.
The allocation of the fund is a living, future-oriented symbol
of remembrance and forms a complement to the static sculpture.
It is a flowing reference to the energy of sympathy and of mourning
and to co-operativeness and solidarity.
The remembrance of the victims of the tsunami disaster in this
place should include the survivors in the countries affected
and shoud intensify the mental and emotional links between the
locations.
Loans The basic
idea is to create a fund from part of the budget that was allocated
to this project – as
a form of contemporary artistic action. The idea behind this
approach is to use micro-credits as a kind of living thought,
a system of relations.
From the fund, interest-free loans will be granted to help people
to set up new businesses. The existing structures and offers
of micro-credit programmes run by neutral aid organisations (for
example CARE International) will be used in order to implement
this part of the artistic project. The fund will be donated to
one of these organisations. Particular emphasis will be placed
on small-scale, personally-oriented ideas, thus helping people
to help themselves. Even sums as small as 200 to 1000 Euro can
help people to establish a livelihood and build a sustainable
future.
Visibility The reference to
the permanently installed memorial in Oslo is centrally important
for this long-term process with its deliberately reduced visibility.
This is why an emblem has been developed from the sculptural
work, an emblem that again and again refers to the purpose and
to the source of the fund. This emblem depicts the two words
on the plaque, which form the design motif of the loan contracts
and of the public accounts.
On the plaque in place of the missing cube there is also an explanatory
sentence about the connection to the fund.
The changing uses to which the money is put will be reported in
annual accounts of the projects that have been realised. These
reports will be published in Oslo, ensuring a constant and active
relation to the memorial location. |
Competition
2006 Open, International Competition for
Project Ideas, National
Foundation for Art in Public Buildings in Oslo, Norway
Author
Office of Integrative Art -
Jörg Amonat, Stefan Krüskemper
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