Today is our last full day in Oslo and there was one thing on my list that we still hadn’t gotten to — the Ekebergparken Sculpture Garden set on a large hilly forested area not far outside downtown Oslo. Unlike Vigeland Park, Ekeberg has works by a number of artists, all fairly modern, the oldest ones being from Renoir, Rodin, Maillol and Dali.
Here is one of our favorite works. When we came upon it, it looked like the picture on the left — sort of an arrow. But both parts can be pushed to move independently (and then you have to run out of their way because they both can move quickly and you wouldn’t want to get hit by that huge slab of metal!). There is a sign outside of the radius of the sculpture that says “Danger – rotating sculpture. Use at your own risk.”
A bit further up the path we came upon another favorite. Megan called it “two soft-serve ice cream cones with legs”. Next we were trying to find a work that I’d heard about that was made in honor of the 150th anniversary of Edvard Munch’s birth. It is a platform that overlooks the backdrop of “The Scream” (called Skrik in Norwegian) and she filmed more than 200 Norwegians screaming there to make a performance art movie. Now it is still open for regular people to go there and scream or to just look at the view. When we first tried to find the artwork, Leon used Google maps which brought us to a bridge outside the park where there is a commemorative plaque about The Scream. So first we screamed there on the bridge. Then I made us go find the artwork. Megan and I screamed on the art installation as well, but I guess Leon was burned out on screaming!
The other installation that I was particularly keen to see only happens once every 2 hours between 10 and 7 pm. So by noon we had managed to find the location, and were able to view Fujiko Nakaya’s “Pathfinder #18700 Oslo”.
The artwork is mist that rises up in a certain section of the forest. It is hilly there so you can see the mist “rolling” down to the lower parts of the forest, and you can walk in and out of the mist. Below are a few more of the works that we saw. The Venus de Milo with Drawers was done by Salvador Dali in 1933. Anatomy of an Angel is by Damien Hirst (her left side looks like a classic sculpture and the right side shows various parts of her inner anatomy exposed. The one on the lower right is a self-portrait of the artist peeing, and it is actually a fountain which “pees” for 30 seconds about once every 10 minutes. Through random chance it started peeing while I was taking this photo. I read about what the artist was thinking when she made it and she said it conveyed her opinion of the traditional Swedish inheritance policies where all the property goes to the oldest child.
After touring the grounds we had an excellent lunch at the park’s restaurant overlooking Oslo harbor. Leon got a classic Rekkesmørbrød (open-faced shrimp sandwich). It was really loaded with shrimp!
Balents Trip Blog 