(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Welcome to Industrypark said Tone Breaking. She is Head of Information at the 1,3 square kilometer large, fenced and strictly guarded area of nitric acid, fertilizer and submarine factories. Seven Nordic authors interested in environmental and climate issues find themselves in the maxi taxi with Brekke and are driven on safari in the asphalt jungle. Those who have arranged for entry into the area are behind the Greenlightdistrict festival which will be launched in May, where Grenland in the span between post and new industrialized eras is themed. Now they have invited us to a weekend in the region to write.
Brekke gives us helmets marked "Visitors" on the front and stated that it is not allowed to photograph during the safari. Why? Potential industrial espionage, explains Ho. Herøya Industripark's customers are companies such as Yara, Hydro Aluminum Technology Center, Norwegian Railways – and almost 80 others. The works succeed in owning houses or parts of houses in the streets that crumble and cross between halls and buildings, large tanks, pools and pipes from which steam and smoke come. Brekke then gives a rather advantageous presentation about the park's success story as facilitator and accomplished for industry. Industries have come and gone, but mostly there is steam and smoke from pipes in the park on one side in 1905. Here, companies from all over the world get cheap power and 9000 liters of cooling water per second pumping in from a water north of Skien. One can say that Norway offers; seal electricity and sometimes pure nature against industry investing here. Those who get lured here pay with jobs.
Industries have come and gone, but mostly there is steam and smoke from the pipes in the park on one side in 1905.
Mid May artists from all over the world exhibit in Grenland. They ask among others about what emerges from the technology, operations and production that we have. What are the tensions in the new industries that are now going on? «Greenlight district, literary edit» is a prelude to the festival. It begins with the trip between the factories where Brekke tells how the workers on Herøya have received cheap loans and help to build houses on the border of the industrial area. That they here have their own culture house, cinema, casino, sports hall and shop – everything they need to live a decent life. I'm thinking of the song "Little Boxes"; a text about safe, standardized and potentially standardizing societies. While Malmfrid a couple of seats in front of me in the maxi-taxi thinks of his grandparents: One of them was a glassblower, the other workers "on the floor" in the industry. For everyone, the factory was every day and probably something they left with joy on Saturday afternoon. Malmfrid thinks about his role as a contributor with a loan helmet. In his own role as "productive". What kind of professional identity does it give to be a playwright? What does she win, and what does she miss?
Porsgrunn has also had porcelain factory, cement foundry, "Porsgrund's Electrometallurgical" and Beha Factories. They have had strong professional movements, great economic inequality, counter- and underground culture: jazz, rock, punk. Today, the city, alongside being the birthplace of many famous musicians, is above all a theater town. A "free" theater city, with Grenland Friteater at the forefront. Porsgrunn International Theater Festival has become an established event heavily acclaimed by internationally acclaimed theater artists.
Is it fair to compare life here with growing up as a child of a professional military – in military camps?
People have responded against socio-economic inequality and against the danger of ruined nature and health. One found that asbestos, which people had been in contact with for decades through their work, was dangerous. Loss of memory and concentration and headaches and nausea made one discover that solvent exposure can cause brain damage.
The car stops. We get to go out and take the building and industrial park streets, maybe even the industry itself, in close eye. Well out we breathe deeply. The air is not particularly bad-smelling. "The windows take the smoke away from Herøya and towards Rafnes," explains Tom Hovinbøle, who grew up here and now works as a curator at Kunsthall Grenland. He's with us in the car. Herøya is, paradoxically, among the cleaner areas in the district. A bit like Iceland during volcanic eruptions, that is.
Tone Brekke gathers us in front of a small house. Vindauga is dark, roof low. Here is the area say hospital, we know. Ever since the industry began, Hydro, which was here first, has had a social conscience, which has led to the fact that they have always had one or two full-time doctors who have performed health checks and hand-seaming of employees and their families. But more importantly, explains Brekke: Legane has systematically and for decades been gathering health information about all its patients and storing this knowledge. The archive will soon be transferred to the Industrial Workers Museum at Rjukan.
Look at this one The relatively small island has the industrial workers tread throughout the working days. Throughout working life, they have stayed within this circle, on this island, and the benefits offered here. I ask Høvinsbøle: Is it fair to compare life here with growing up as a child of a professional military – in military camps? No, is the answer. In a blog that I googled myself for, write "Tom Høvinbøle from Herøya": "I lived away from Herøya and Porsgrunn for over 15 years before moving back in 2006. This series – at approx. 20 pictures – presents portraits of a fictitious 'Tom Hovinbøle' in various situations and settings; Each picture tells the story of the person being depicted, who he is, what he is doing. Each picture is accompanied by a short written biography. »
What if you never move from Herøya? It is interesting to think of the area within the fence as a small town with inhabitants, tenants, right-wingers and lower classes; with roads and signs and pool and small mountains of salt: the island, history, houses, streets, hierarchy, scandal, antagonist. The search for a protagonist, a hero, awakens the author in me. The island is like a universe created for storytelling.
Maxi taxi punches outside our office, «Ladegaarden». There, the authors share a kitchen, table – and a meal. Malmfrid makes a roll in two and throws out a question: "This with bread job – job to survive, to provide for his family. How do they view it in the art profession? Is there anything they do to survive as human beings, because they enjoy being creative and creative? Or is it to raise money? ” Laughter around the table. No one seems to do art because of money. When our answers are so obvious, we become curious as to why Malmfrid asks. As an artist, she herself knows how difficult it is to make ends meet if one does not have other jobs on the side. She has been sitting in the office with a colleague. Every time Malmfrid asks how her work is going, the colleague sighs heavily and says: "Well, I'm just trying to survive a little longer." "As if it is possible to survive financially by completing and having another work delivered," Malmfrid explains. She is self-employed with her own company.
Grow new nutrients which comes to Grenland in the new industrialization say time is thus some of what the Greenlightdistrict art festival is researching. The theme is development.
There is no contradiction between what is important, ethically "right" and relevant, and what creates interesting art. On the contrary. Times are changing – technology, science and industry are the same. Industries that the branch lenders believed they depended on disappear. Consumption patterns and knowledge needs take new forms. Most gas companies – high-growth companies in a short time - find one within information and communication, transport, storage and service. On Herøya, the old soups are cooked. Ammonia bath here and hydrochloric acid there; magnesium oxide to the toothpaste we still use today – which flushes out into the sea.
