Anger in Norway over memorial for victims of mass murderer Breivik
A controversial memorial project for the victims of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik near the site of the massacre has sparked anger among relatives and locals.
A controversial memorial project for the victims of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik near the site of the massacre has sparked anger among relatives and locals.
Called Memory Wound, the project by Swedish landscape artist Jonas Dahlberg carves a 3.5-metre wide slit through a small peninsula facing the island of Utoeya, where the right-wing extremist killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, on July 22, 2011.
I’m not against the monument itself. It’s the way that it was chosen
Names of the victims would be engraved into one side of the peninsula's symbolic wound, with an observation gallery installed into the facade on the opposite side.
The jury which selected the proposal described it as "a wound or a cut within the landscape" which symbolises "something being taken away".
The idea was hailed when it was chosen last month but since then criticism has grown.
Families of some of the victims complain they were never consulted about the avant-garde installation. Residents say that it scars the landscape. Experts argue that it is technically not viable.