Victor Lind is one of our most prominent artists, known for his historical and political works. And his art project is deeply personal. He himself and his mother narrowly escaped the Norwegian police’s hunt for all citizens of Jewish origin. Throughout the last thirty years, his art has therefore revolved around the same theme: the deportation of Norwegian Jews during the Second World War. Personal vendetta Through various projects, he approaches this heartbreaking narrative. It plays out between two extremes, embodied through two men. One is the Norwegian policeman Knut Rød, who was a NS member and led the deportation in Oslo. THE RESPONSIBLE: The exhibition “Freedom must be hospitable” focuses, among other things, on the Norwegian judiciary’s acquittal of the Nazi Knut Rød. Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen The other is the gardener Rolf Alexander Syvertsen, who hid Jews and resistance fighters in his garden and helped them escape across the border to Sweden. The painful turning point in this story is that while the gardener was targeted and shot, the policeman was acquitted – and continued to work in the police force after the war as a respected first officer. This is the reason why Victor Lind has turned his art project into a personal vendetta. HERO STATUS: In this work, Victor Lind highlights the gardener Rolf Alexander Syvertsen. Although the conceptual is central to the project, the colors also play an important role. Photo: Halvor Bodin / Haugar art museum Jakter jegeren You could almost say that he has created an artistic court so that justice will finally be done to the full. In his project, he elevates the gardener and gives him the hero status he deserves, while holding Red accountable by revealing his cool execution of Nazi Germany’s monstrous order. Lind does not attempt to hide his own intentions. As he himself has said: “Knut Rød hunted me. Now I’m hunting him.” In many cases, perhaps such a strong personal commitment would have weakened the art, but Lind makes it work in a strange way. DOUBLENESS: “Is a green monochrome surface more interesting than a RED one?” With this project, Lind puts the spotlight on the duplicity in Rød’s work as an active NS man who later (at the last minute) switched sides and claimed to have contributed to the resistance movement. Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen A poetic introduction But it’s also a bit nice that the exhibition opens with something completely different. An open poetic expression: “Blessed are those who walk” (2020). Here, the artist has photographed various pedestrians with his own iPhone. It’s everything from joggers sprinting past in tight-fitting training clothes, elderly people staggering away with a walker on the pavement, or tired parents of young children with children in tow or sitting on their shoulders. Some run, some walk, some limp, some stroll. I don’t really know why this work grabs hold of me. At least I’ll stay for a long time and watch. There is something meditative about it all. We walk and walk in a kind of frenetic race between sunrise and sunset, and the traces we leave are fleeting. ON FOOT: In the work “Blessed are those who walk”, the multi-artist has filmed pedestrians with his phone camera. Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen / Haugar art museum The absence of the Jews But then the work “Alt for Norge” brings us right into Lind’s central theme. This is a work where two old women talk about their experiences related to the deportation. Amalie Laksov was the widow of Håkon Laksov who was sent to Auschwitz and who was killed there. Amalie Christie, on the other hand, was a member of the resistance movement. She tells about how she personally confronted Rød with the question “where have they gone”. “EVERYTHING FOR NORWAY”: Installation from 2002 where two women talk about experiences from the deportation of Jews. Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen / Haugar Art Museum The absence of Jews is a recurring theme. In 1998, Lind created the performance project “I’ll Bring You Home”. This is a reconstruction of the fateful October morning in 1942 when the actual deportation was carried out. At five in the morning, Lind got a hundred empty taxis to run the same route. In the exhibition we can see a pictorial frieze that refers to this. 5.5 METERS LONG: In the exhibition, a pictorial frieze called “100 taxis” refers to the powerful performance project “I’ll Bring You Home” from 1998. 5.5 METERS LONG: In the exhibition, a pictorial frieze called “100 taxis” refers to the powerful the performance project “I’ll Bring You Home” from 1998. The empty cars are a strong symbol of the irreparable absence that these people have left behind. But the work can also be seen as a desperate but futile attempt to heal a wound in history. Flaming and shape-conscious These addresses where the Jews were picked up also light up on a cobalt blue map like stars in the work “Oslo by Night”. MAP OF THE HOME OF THE JEWS: The work “Oslo by Night” is a video that simply shows a cobalt blue map of Oslo, sprinkled with twinkling stars. The stars mark the addresses of the many hundreds of Jews who were taken from their homes and driven to Oslo harbor where they were forced on board the prison ship DS “Donau” and brought to Auschwitz. Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen In addition to a flaming commitment, Victor Lind’s art bears the mark of a clear awareness of form. The aesthetic is pure simple and based on clear primary and complementary colors. This is how he intertwines the ethical and the aesthetic in a complex and exciting way. The exhibition “Freedom must be hospitable” is both beautiful and interesting and should definitely be visited. news reviews Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen Title: “Freedom must be hospitable” Where: Haugar Museum, Tønsberg Curators: Erlend Hammer Date: 17 September – 30 December 2022
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“Freedom must be hospitable” at Haugar Art Museum – Reviews and recommendations
