Sculpture Park

Art for Inspiration

The Sculpture Park consists exclusively of works by the Norwegian artist Magne Furuholmen and is the largest collection of ceramic works in Scandinavia today. Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the sculpture park when it was completed in June 2016.

Park Design

In the 10-acre park, 40 ceramic individual elements are placed, all crafted in high-fired stoneware. Two enormous jars, each 6 meters tall and weighing 9 tons, form the entrance and exit of the park. Along the long sides, nine different columns, ranging from 2 to 4 meters tall, are positioned in two elongated water basins, where water and steam create different atmospheric moods depending on the season.

In the center of the park, large stairs lead down to an atrium, where a 12-meter long ceramic band made of glazed and painted tiles forms an abstract undulating shape set into the ground. Up close, one can discern words and fragments of text that are embedded in the tiles. However, from street level, the tiles form larger letters, while at a further distance, they become readable words and anagrams for the park's title, IMPRINTS.

Additionally, there are several sculptures shaped like elongated blocks placed between the jars and the columns, acting as a counterbalance to the vertical aspirations of the jars and columns, as well as the horizontal word forms at the bottom of the atrium. The entire large outdoor installation is unified by a 12-meter long ceramic relief located inside Akers Reception.

Ambition

The project seeks to capture Fornebuporten's ambition to gather all experience and knowledge from industrial operations and energy resource management to create a hub for future research and development activities in these essential fields. The artist has chosen to emphasize this with the axis of history, present, and future as a starting point—partly by selecting ultra-traditional materials and techniques such as ceramics and archaic forms like jars (amphorae), columns, and sarcophagus-like sculptures made in a modern way, to create a sense of suspension between something raw and something new. The artist views the objects and forms as ambiguous; part-ruins of old, partial building blocks from a new undefined architectural plan, situated between the archaeological and the industrial.

In addition, there is a textual universe with words and poetry that can be traced around the forms, directly hammered into the soft material, letter by letter. The texts relate to the same theme in a more open and abstract manner intended to create curiosity, discovery, and inspiration. Central to the texts are also the Latin words; ‘Conservare’, ‘Inspirare’, and ‘Creare’, meaning ‘to preserve’ (experience and knowledge), ‘to inspire’ (innovation), and ‘to create’ (produce the new).

It is Fornebuporten's hope that this sculpture park will become a destination in itself and that the works will continue to inspire and excite users of the area for many years to come.