World

Architect Remembers Massacre Victims With 'Wounded' Landscape

By NPR Staff

Published March 20, 2014 at 5:00 AM EDT

1 of 4 — This illustration, provided by artist Jonas Dahlberg, shows his vision for a "memory wound" near the Norwegian island where dozens of people died during an attack by a right-wing extremist in 2011.

This illustration, provided by artist Jonas Dahlberg, shows his vision for a "memory wound" near the Norwegian island where dozens of people died during an attack by a right-wing extremist in 2011.

2 of 4 — This illustration shows how visitors will be able to look out from one side of the gap at a wall where names of the victims will be inscribed. The space between is meant to symbolize how those who were killed are gone and irreplaceable, but are not forgotten.

This illustration shows how visitors will be able to look out from one side of the gap at a wall where names of the victims will be inscribed. The space between is meant to symbolize how those who were killed are gone and irreplaceable, but are not forgotten.

3 of 4 — Visitors to the memorial walk on a wooden pathway, through a tunnel and then emerge at the edge of the severed peninsula across from the island where the shooting occurred.

Visitors to the memorial walk on a wooden pathway, through a tunnel and then emerge at the edge of the severed peninsula across from the island where the shooting occurred.

4 of 4 — An illustration of what the cut will look like from afar when visitors approach.

An illustration of what the cut will look like from afar when visitors approach.

On a July day in 2011, the world first heard of a small island off Norway called Utoya under the most terrible circumstances. The island was a youth camp for Norway's Labor Party. On that summer day, a heavily armed right-wing extremist stepped onto Utoya and began to walk across it, shooting at random.

Sixty-nine people died, over a hundred were wounded — almost all young people.

This month, artist and architect Jonas Dahlberg was commissioned to create a memorial, due to open next year on the anniversary of this tragedy. Most striking is the way Dahlberg envisions a channel cut clean through the end of a peninsula, a concept he calls a "memory wound." He described his vision to Morning Edition's Renee Montagne.

Interview Highlights

On the experience he envisions for visitors.

You start your walk through a forest of evergreens, which is almost like Christmas trees, on a wooden pathway that are sort of circling through the forest. And you see a little bit of the lake, but you're pretty much enclosed on some sort of contemplative walk through this forest. After a while, this pathway starts to go down into the landscape.

Then, visitors go into a short tunnel and then emerge into daylight, where they stand at the edge of the severed peninsula. Across a narrow channel of water, there is a wall of stone engraved with the names of the dead.

It becomes almost like a gravestone, very polished stone. You cannot reach it. It's close enough to be able to read, but it's forever lost for your possibility to reach.

On what he means by "memory wound"

During my first site visit, the experience of seeing those gunshots ... it was like being in an open wound, and it took me to a stage of deep sadness where it was hard to breathe. So I didn't want to illustrate loss; I wanted to make actual loss. It's just a cut through the peninsula. ...

It's still almost impossible to understand [the shooting]. It's also one of the reasons why it's so important with memorials for these kinds of things. It's to maybe help a little bit to understand what was happening. So it's not just about remembering, it's also about trying to just understand — or helping to understand.

Corrected: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 AM EDT

The "memory wound" art installation is to be on a peninsula near Utoya Island, not on the island itself as our photo captions originally indicated.