Spectacular sculpture

At Festplassen in Bergen, Bård Breivik’s 7x7x7-meter sculpture is now in place.

Made of polished stainless steel, it graces Bergen centre during the spring and summer of 2010.

Temporary public art
‘This is a one-time stunt as far as the museum is concerned’, says Erlend Høyersten, director of Bergen Art Museum. He thinks the sculpture will be an exciting element in Bergen this summer.
‘It’s quite interesting to work with temporary exhibitions outside the museum’s physical walls’, says Høyersten.

Debated in Bergen
As one of the most highly profiled sculptors in Norway today, Bård Breivik enjoys a prominent position in contemporary Norwegian art history. He is also the artist behind the controversial pillars on Torgallmenningen (Bergen’s central square).

The sculpture is actually intended as a decoration for the new Institute for Informatics building at University of Oslo. At that final destination it will function as a relief. The sculpture gives form to digital images that represent basic mathematic equations. One of these is the ‘Doppler effect’, a sound-wave phenomenon most of us recognize when we hear a siren passing.

Based on reality
Breivik hopes the sculpture will be well received by Bergensians: ‘It’s based on reality, the kind of real math that concerns us every day. It gives concrete expression to things we might not normally think about, but which we use all the time.’

Public Art Norway commissioned the sculpture, and the project is made possible through financial support from the Institute for Informatics, University of Oslo.

By: Maria Tripodianos
1-6 2010