She was 99 years old when she finished her last works and had her last exhibition in 2020. It was 80 years after she had completed her ceramics education in Stuttgart. Eva Børresen was a highly recognized ceramicist. She is known for strong ceramics, and received a gold medal at the Triennale in Milan in 1954 for a two-part coffee pot. Eva Børresen in her home in 1953. A copy of the two-part coffee pot can be seen over her left shoulder. Photo: Unknown photographer She made everything from bowls and vases to wall decorations in public buildings. Børresen was also involved in the creation of the trade union Norske Kunsthåndverkere. She is the mother of ceramicist Bibbi Børresen and grandmother of writers Hilde and Hanne Hagerup. – She was an incredibly kind mother, says Bibbi Børresen to news. Together with her daughter, Eva was involved in voluntary work. Among other things, she held ceramics courses for immigrant women for over 10 years. Hilde Hagerup also has warm memories. – Grandma taught me to skate backwards. She sprayed the skating rink on the lawn with the garden hose, she writes on Facebook. Eva Børresen in a brilliant mood at Hvaler in 2019. Photo: PRIVAT Became Norwegian for love Børresen was born on 29 November 1920 in Berlin. She moved to Norway in the summer of 1939 as an 18-year-old, because of her love for the Norwegian carpenter Runar Børresen. They had met in Stuttgart when she was studying to become a ceramist and he was studying to become an interior designer. Now she was going to meet his parents. When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September, she and Runar agreed that she should stay in Norway, so that they would not be separated by war. They married and Eva learned Norwegian by reading Norwegian weekly magazines. Eva Børresen in Trondheim after the war. Photo: Privat Soar time – It was of course difficult to be German and experience your own people tramping up the valley as occupiers, says Bibbi Børresen. – She was constantly afraid that she would run into her older brother as a German occupier. She did not know that he was late for the Eastern Front, as the son of a sculptor with a professional ban (Waldemar Hecker). When Norway was invaded on 9 April 1940, the couple lived in Lillehammer. Eva was pregnant, had just moved in and didn’t know anyone. She waved goodbye to Runar at the station before he left with his squad up Gudbrandsdalen to stop the Germans at Tretten. – Mother went home without quite knowing what to do. Then the doorbell rang. Outside stood Marit Ahlsen, a neighbour, who asked if she wanted to join the group of sanitary women who knitted stockings and rolled bandages for the soldiers in the hospital. That’s how she met one of her best friends! Eva Børresen at work in Trondheim after the war. Photo: Privat Knocked up by the Gestapo During the war, the couple hid people who fled the occupying power in their own apartment in Oslo. – When mother and father moved to Oslo late in 1942, she had a penthouse on the Uranienborg terrace and took advantage of the fact that she was German and spoke kindly to the Gestapo chief’s boss. Eva was beaten up by the Gestapo in 1943 when it was discovered that she had forwarded letters from Jews in Germany to their children who had escaped to England. The top flat was also revealed and Runar ended up at Grini until 1945. After the war, the artist couple lived in several Norwegian cities. But in 1981 they moved to their last city, Fredrikstad. Runar died in 1983. Eva stayed in Fredrikstad until she fell asleep quietly on Saturday 3 September.
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The award-winning ceramicist Eva Børresen has died – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
