Three proposals for a National Memorial for 22 July in Oslo
On Thursday 6th June 2024, KORO hosted an open seminar at the National Museum in Oslo where ten artists/architects/groups presented their ideas for a new National Memorial in the new Government Quarter. The seminar is available here as a recording (mostly in Norwegian). See all ten proposals here.
On Friday 6th September 2024, the jury selected the following three projects to participate in the second part of the process: Raqs Media Collective: 22nd July National Memorial, Matias Faldbakken: A Continuation, and Henning Sunde, Hanne Tyrmi og Rainer Stange: 22 July Memorial Grove.
The three final participants presented their proposals to the jury 20 January 2025.
The winner will be announced on 8 April 2025.
Raqs Media Collective:
22nd July National Memorial
In their proposal for a new 22 July memorial site, Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta from Raqs Media Collective take time and movement as their starting point. They suggest creating twelve sculptural clocks in different bird formations. The memorial will also contain a glass column, which will stand like a sundial and be inscribed with the names of the seventy-seven terror victims.
Matias Faldbakken:
A Continuation
Matias Faldbakken’s proposal for a new 22 July memorial site, A Continuation, is a sculpture that is scaled for the square and based on the steel rig that was used to move Pablo Picasso’s The Fishermen from the now-demolished Y-Block over to the new A-Block in the Government Quarter. Filled with a mosaic, the rig will serve as a dignified memorial to those killed during the terrorist attack and as a gathering place for visitors.
Henning Sunde, Hanne Tyrmi og Rainer Stange:
22 July Memorial Grove
Henning Sunde, Hanne Tyrmi, and Rainer Stange’s sketch proposal for a new 22 July memorial site, 22 July Memorial Grove: Large bronze sculptures of felled trees are framed by a grove of green vegetation. The memorial grove represents both the time that stopped and the time to come.