Friday, March 7, 2014

A gap is the design for memorial for Breivik victims

Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg says the Memory Wound reproduces the physical experience of taking away reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss.


Rubble taken from this slice to be used to form part of another memorial in Oslo where Breivik detonated a bomb.

The design of this project strikes me as hauntingly beautiful and thoughtful while so much of this story strikes me as odd, so very odd, like it's happening is some strange alien place, some foreign country or something. Breivik was sentenced to 21 years for killing 77 people. Gauche as it is calculating 1 year for each 3.6 children killed, still wouldn't life until he's dead dead dead be a minimum amount considered? How is it justice the man still lives and breathes? What sanctimony is served by that? Secondly, isn't it odd turning a site of national horror into a tourist attraction? Exquisite apart from those two things.

bbc

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I like the memorial idea.

21 years in prison after slaughtering 77? How European.

virgil xenophon said...

AA--"our" AA--beat me to it. :)

How European indeed..

Unknown said...

Virgil :)

deborah said...

Chip:
"What sanctimony is served by that?"

Western Civilization contains the seeds of its own destruction. Europe has been through more war and horror than the US, and has pussified at a much faster rate.

bagoh20 said...

Very original, and striking. I like it too, although I would have gone with a more developed shape to the cut.

As to the 21 years: embarrassing, insulting, and disrespectful of innocence and life to an astounding magnitude. It's not possible to punish him appropriate to the crime, but that does not let us off the hook to at least try.

rcocean said...

Note to self: Bring Victim to Norway - then terminate with extreme prejudice.

rcocean said...

On the plus side, he was at least found guilty. Cf: OJ Simpson.

rcocean said...

This seems to be a NW European disease. Vandergraft killed a famous Dutch Politician in 2002, and got.....18 years.

You'd think Dutch lawmakers would be a little upset at that uh..precedent. But nope.

chickelit said...

I was visually reminded of the Corinth Canal, begun in ancient times but only completed in the late 19th century.

Chip Ahoy said...

I never heard of that Corinth Canal before. Muy interesante.

The memorial reminded me of the Freeman's impressive cut stone as depicted in the movie Dune. Large hallways cut with laser precision through the hardest of hard rock. I vaguely recall in the book some emphasis on describing this, the startling dichotomy between primitive outback appearance and technological éclat. Paul Atreides thinks, "Hmm, a laser."

Valentine Smith said...

Very powerful. I wonder where the entrance to the viewing spot inside the cut is? Come in and stare at the arm of this island that you can't reach, made sacred by its emptiness.