(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
If you ask people in Oslo what they like best about the city, they answer that it only takes 20 minutes to get out in Nordmarka. Similarly with magnificent books about Norway: There are glossy prospect pictures of landscapes; usually without people who can disturb the idyll. Nor does NAF's road book tell about the people – it goes to ancient monuments and sights.
Therefore, this book constitutes, E 6. A journey through the life of Norwegians, a welcome change: It is primarily about the people you can meet around Norway, and only secondarily about their things. The frame is a car journey from Svinesund to Kirkenes. Journalist Trude Lorentzen and photographer Karin Beate Nøsterud have driven the 2672 kilometers in a flame-painted Lada – quite smart, because with such a donation you slip unnoticed into most environments in Norway.
Life (and death) along the way
In addition to small fact columns running parallel to the text, we learn more in-depth about what is being done to secure the roads (to prevent humans from dying, and to prevent animals from dying or injuring cars and humans); suicide drivers who pick out a trailer like Endlösung (something "Zero Vision" can do little with); about why there is a queue; about what it's like to work in a toll booth; or what it's like to clear the road over the mountain for snow, or "dig" (blast) the tunnel. And the total absence of E-6 romance in Norwegian film.
More folkloristic elements tell about "Mor's kro" at Kvam, where regular customers can get their own cup on the wall: "Trailer-Kåre" and so on, the print is on the cup. According to the mother herself, Ari Behn has tried to beg for a cup. Let him have one! («Apanasje-Ari»). A man and a wife who lost their 18-year-old son (with a well-trimmed car); "Torfinn and Bjørg's petrol" (one of the country's two private petrol stations); the abandoned Hell with a motel where only the letters «minor» are left (business idea: create international museum and stage for black metal); Mosquito-invaded Ringebu (which has received help from Belgian researchers); and Skippagurra where author / pimp Frank Tandberg rented out Russian women from cabins (during the trial it emerged that he had plans to expand with go-karts and amusement parks).
Subsistence
Dining along the way in the world's richest countries is an interesting phenomenon. "In 2004, Norwegians consumed 4800 tonnes of sausages, pizza and hamburgers at the country's gas stations." For those with better time and more sophisticated appetizers, there are hard-boiled beef and plaice at their own restaurants. "So bad it is almost charming," commented master chef Trond Moi in a newspaper. But in Malvik they had picked up an idea from Autobahn in Germany: a gourmet restaurant in a built-in bridge over the E 6, with panoramic windows. Today, the visions are moderated: “It did not go quite as we intended. After all, there are certainly no culinary experiences people are looking for along the way, ”says Rune Almo, general manager. Now it is meat cakes (NOK 103, – incl. Coffee) that are the big ones.
My home is my Chevy
It is natural for Norwegians to drive the car: The big difference between today's and yesterday's generation is mobility: Growing up in the 1950s, you had to basically stay home. A generation later, anyone can go wherever they want. And it is in favor in a country as thinly populated as Norway.
Many weird subcultures organize meetings and gatherings along the way, often centered around their motorized driving gear. In Jessheim Lorentzen and Nøsterud found a Norway Van Club meeting. The cars are decorated with the same type of objects that people have at home: parquet floors, curtains, flower pots and nips. Outside the cars are glorious brushpaint paintings of prairie wolves, Vikings and naked ladies on ice floes.
I am convinced that the people who spend their lives and their money on this, do so with a defiant joy towards all those who think it is tasteless and harry. These are probably the things you can use freedom for. There is a sovereignty and a pleasure in wasting (as Bataille pointed out): «- 50 kroner? Just for the polish? – Yep. We who are not so lucky with our own exterior, have to yell a little extra on the car. "
The art of selling somewhere
After the Bouchiki murder of Lillehammer in 1972, the local newspapers were pleased that Lillehammer had finally arrived on the map. Many small places in Norway struggle with being a little out of the ordinary and there are many other similar places. The place needs to be profiled!
Steinkjer is the «IT city». Therefore, Lorentzen was in good spirits when she brought her sick laptop to Elkjøp in Steinkjer. Five clerks rubbed their foreheads for an entire hour of overtime, and understood nothing. «- But this is the 'IT city'? Embarrassed smile. – It was before, that. They have gone away from that image now, it was probably never quite that big. Now the municipal council has decided that Steinkjer will be 'the city at the bottom of the fjord'. "
Perhaps the country's municipal councils should recognize their incompetence in this important area and outsource the sentencing to homeless patrols (paid with funds from the District Development Fund).
With respect
Well. The road is there. You may not go away, but you can, as Lorentzen summarizes somewhere in the middle of Norway and in the middle of the book. And only one sentence shows a paradigm shift in Norwegian mention of Norwegian surrounding: It has been an unwritten rule for many years that rural areas should be described in positive order layers as authentic, while urban should be referred to as problematic (fuss and exhaust, Nordmarka as a breather ).
Far from being an outgrowth of rural Norway, Lorentzen takes a more relaxed stance: She describes people with respect, but fails to show the foolish, the failed and the boring.
Based on the press release from Kagge publishing house, I was afraid the book would be a middle ground between "Mamarazzi" plundering and Dagbladet Magasinet clichés. But it is not: E6 is well written, informative and fun. Nøsterud's photographs steer clear of quasi-realism and Dag Thorenfeldt-inspired monkey lines. People are photographed while they realize they are, and relax to the extent that the presence of a photographer permits just that. And the, I would argue, is authentic. The images are so many, narrative and beautiful that you can just sit and watch them if you are not in reading mode. Strong colors and very good technical rendering make the book, in landscape A4 format, a definite favorite of my coffee table in pine wood.
