ExhibitionSep 29, 2022-Oct 31, 2022
A child's shoe abandoned in the ruins. A doll with a missing arm trapped under the remains of a home. These small objects reveal traces of lives that have been displaced.
How do you take in what a war means for the people who are affected? How do you convey the enormous suffering and loss? Kristin Solberg has asked herself these questions many times during the ten years she has reported from wars and conflicts around the world.
“Sometimes I feel that journalism is not enough. Perhaps art can convey the message in a language that journalism lacks,” says the journalist and author who is now exhibiting her first art project Traces of life at the Nobel Peace Center.
TELLING STORIES OF LIFE
As a Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent, Kristin Solberg has covered the war in Syria for several years. The war has claimed the lives of half a million people, forced half of Syria`s population to flee and left entire cities in ruins. Solberg has produced countless reports from amid the ruins of cities such as Aleppo, Idlib, Eastern Ghouta and Raqqa. From the same heaps of rubble, she has unearthed small, abandoned everyday objects that tell us about the lives that were once lived there; shoes and clothes, toys and kitchen utensils. These objects are now displayed together with Solberg’s own photos from the war-torn cities in a pop-up exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center.
In the exhibition, the objects are hung from the branches of olive trees, in the same way that Norwegians usually hang a lost mitten or hat in the trees beside a skiing trail.
“I want to highlight the cost of war to its victims and at the same time make the public think about the responsibility we have to protect and help people affected by war," says Solberg.
Livsspor is open until the end of October and is free to the public. NB! The exhibition will be closed for part of the day during weekdays due to school visits.
ABOUT KRISTIN SOLBERG
Kristin Solberg is a Norwegian journalist and author. As a correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, she has covered the war in Syria and several other conflicts for more than ten years. She is currently on leave from her position at NRK and recently published the book “Den andre” (The other) about a Norwegian Islamic State (IS) woman. Livsspor is Solberg’s first art project.
Share: