New sculpture in Oslo honours mothers

The vast piece, which weighs 18.2 tonnes, travelled from London in five parts on four large lorries and was transported to Norway by ship. It depicts a woman kneeling over an invisible child. According to Emin, it shows her mother. She says so in The Art Newspaper. “It’s going to be fantastic, this older woman, this old lady, taking root in front of the Munch Museum, protecting Munch’s work, legs open towards the fjord, welcoming travellers. I’m so happy about it.”

Strong mothers

Omar S. Gamal, a member of the Oslo City Council for the Socialist Left Party, is pleased with the work of art. “It will be a warm and nice icon. In the time we live in, with many crazy men around the world, we need more good and strong mothers”, says Gamal to Vårt Land.

Lena Engelsen agrees with Gamal. She is the general secretary of the National Association '1001 days’. This organisation works with vulnerable women, focusing on mental health during pregnancy and after childbirth. “If we take care of mothers, we also take care of society. There is a lot of symbolism in it. It could have been an abstract work that came here, but the fact that we choose a woman and mother I think is very beautiful and special”, says Engelsen.

According to Emin, her sculpture is everyone’s mother. “I see myself in her. I see my mother. I hope Munch sees his mother in her. I hope we all see the person who brought us into the world.”

Another artist, Tore Bjørn Skjølsvik, tells Vart Land that the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s mother was a deeply religious woman. “She told the children: ‘I’m going to die soon. And then you must behave in such a way that we meet in heaven.”” Skjølsvik says that when Munch died, the letter where his mother had written this was found in his inside pocket. Skjølsvik thinks Tracey Emin has thought of this when she now unites Munch and her mother by the fjord.

The artwork won a competition for the spot outside Munch in 2018. Emin did not think she would win. “It is figurative and subjective. I thought they would choose something more modern. But I thought I might as well give it a try because I love Munch so much”, says Emin.

Tracey Emin has no children herself but has had abortions twice. She based her some of her art on the abortions. Everything she makes is deeply personal, often revealing and controversial. This winter, she exhibited her bed at the Munch Museum in a large solo exhibition. “My bed”, surrounded by empty vodka bottles, used condoms, and old cigarettes, stood side by side with Munch’s paintings.