A K Dolven and Cathrine Vigander
The Square and the Sun
The entire square is the work. Time and trauma are the materials.
The Sun, nine metres high and made of thin Arctic marble, serves as a varied cloud cover.
When the sun moves behind the marble, up to the top and down again towards the underground 22 July Centre, the millions of years residing in the marble encounter the present. This slowly unfolding movement takes place continuously throughout the entire day, all year round.
The Square is for everyone. Past and present meet the future. The horizontal meets the vertical.
Subtle shoe- and footprints are visible in the square, with the Norwegian word SPRING (“run”) serving as the backdrop. The prints will be made in collaboration with victims of the terrorist attack. A horizontal light source will make the prints visible around the clock.
– A K Dolven og Cathrine Vigander
A K Dolven and Cathrine Vigander
The artist A K Dolven and architect Cathrine Vigander have worked together on several major projects, including Untuned Bell at the Honnørbrygga pier in Oslo and the competition entry Between the Mornings for the new Inger Munch’s Pier next to the Munch Museum. They are currently collaborating ahead of Dolven’s new exhibition in spring 2025, which will be the National Museum’s first ever retrospective of a living Norwegian artist. Humanity itself is the focal point of both Vigander’s and Dolven’s endeavours.
A K Dolven (born 1953 in Oslo) lives and has her studio in Kvalnes, Lofoten. She trained as an artist at the École supérieure d’art in Aix-en-Provence (ESSAix), the Beaux-Arts de Paris, and the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, and for over forty years she has worked as an artist in Berlin, London, Oslo, and Lofoten. Dolven’s oeuvre spans a variety of media, such as painting, film, photography, installation, performance, and sound. Her work has been acquired by several leading international collections, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louisiana in Copenhagen, and the National Museum in Oslo. She has received the Prins Eugen Medal and the Berlinische Galerie’s Fred Thieler Prize. Dolven initiated the Artscape Nordland project in 1988. Other public works include 40 Voices Rankweil, Bodø Voices, and four places for shining stones in Łodz, Berlin, Derry, and Oslo.
Cathrine Vigander (born 1967 in Copenhagen) studied architecture at ETSAB in Barcelona and the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Vigander has combined working as an architect with teaching and lecturing both nationally and internationally for twenty-eight years. In 2017, Vigander received the prestigious Jacob Prize for her works and for her public outreach activities on behalf of architecture. She is currently a partner and general manager at the Oslo-based architectural firm ELEMENT and adjunct professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. At ELEMENT, Vigander has worked on innovative projects at various scales. The firm has received several awards, including the Houen Foundation Award and the Oslo City Architecture Prize for the D36 Green House and for the Union of Education Norway’s conference centre, called the Teacher’s House.