My beloved Oslo - Upside down!

It was a special sight to go to the train to day.  New art at Oslo Central Station.  The art installation is made by Sandra Norrbin (1976), a swede that lives and works in Oslo. She works with the contrasts control / collapse, accumulation / degradation, open / closed. The uprooted tree is a symbol of our and the world's vulnerability today.  

Her own words: 
When a tree falls there are strong forces in motion. An old tree that has lived a generation and maybe more, stroking with when storms are strong, hitting the ground and go with the roots and soil. The brutal fall is the beginning of something new; insects and fungus settles in the fallen trunk, and breakdown nourishes the forest floor. Both upright and lying tree is a kind of microcosm. Just think of all the generations of ants that have crawled around in the trunk!


Recent research shows that trees actually communicating. They remember events and act empathetic towards other trees, not only of their own species. It has been found that harmonic sound waves affecting their growth, and they emit electrical impulses which can be compared to human nerve signals. We have had a close relationship with trees and forests throughout our history, both as poets and lumberjacks. What would we be without them?


The pine that is over a hundred years, was located in the Solem Forest, was ripped up with violence and transported as a fallen giant on an urban funeral journey from the forest to Oslo, where it is fixed with the head and the crown down and the roots upward. That's how it can feel! Just like the trees we need to have contact with the ground, be grounded. Without gravity our body does not work, the muscles deteriorate and the balance is disturbed. Without a mental gravity we come completely out of balance and collapse. Sometimes it is necessary to have a storm that disrupts the  foundation so that we can move on.


The tree will stay here until mid June, so it will be interesting to see the gradually decay.