Op hoes oan

Back in Norway, and luckily the landlords had turned on the heating. Marianne could only sleep with her woolen underwear and a woolen hoodie on. The nose practically almost fell off. But the snow is beautiful! Very very unpractical, but terribly beautiful. Makes everything lighter and brighter. I am sure this is how the Northerners get their portion of vitamin D, or maye it is all the fatty fish.

Our street, in the middle of winter!

Our man, at our house, in the middle of the street, in winter.

Walkingpal + Hugo the border collie (not particularly smart, but very obedient) and Andra, the street mix (quite smart, but not particularly obedient)

On the lookout!

Jealous yet? Well, if I'd had balls, they would've been frozen off by now!

Back in Grønn!!

Every year we try out the new Beaujolais at Annet and Karel. Six years ago they had ten or more different ones in every shop. This year they had the choice of two different ones. The shopkeeper made it perfectly clear that Beaujolais in fact onlybeing made for loosers. That is ok. We can live with that.

Michael on the bridge over the Noordwillemskanaal. At the Emma viaduct.

At the Emmaplein.

The church on the right has been made into appartments, Michael tells me. The church on the left is the Aa-church. Used for the World Press Photo exhibition as well as the Whiskey festival...

The Dienst ROEZ at the Gedempte Zuiderdiep.

Boerekool and the old map of Groningen...

Exhibition: how to grow salad on little place...

How to grow salad on the rooftops?

Tomorrow more impressions.....

De Noord-Duitse laagvlakte

The North German Plain
This plain hurts the eyes, it is unending, you beg it to stop and when you arrive, you know you have to do it once more just to get home. I am talking about the journey from Hirtshals to Groningen. I am still trying to find those responsible for this cockup, but my efforts have alas not been rewarded. Suitable punishment would be forced sudoku-work till brain meltdown.

Color Line, Super Speed. Michael in the cafe.

In Hirtshals at the Shell, dog station as well.

Somewhere in Germany, grey weather, at a Burger King. People from the area.

View from the Burger King.

They do have VGC here (Very Good Coffee) The food stinks but the coffee is amazing. Actually the coffee makes the journey slightly bearable, bringing it up from a slight -7 to a -1.

Bit battered after twelve hours travel and a miserable nights rest. BUT: Great to see Mike's parents and catch up on life in the NL!!

Climbing at Odderøya

Some days ago the weather was surprisingly good!! Facebook is a great place to book climbingappointments, and we ended up at Odderøya. It is an island just south-west of Kristiansand Kvadratur, formerly military area. Now it has been made public again, and the island has revealed some splendid climbing opportunities. Here Anne Kari takes the risky task of going on lead up the wall. Very grateful I am, indeed!

The view from Fyrveggen is absolutely spectacular! Here we get a look straigt out of the Kristiansandfjord. Sometimes you even see the fishingboat sailing in, with a trail of screaming seagulls after it, begging for the leftover fish entrails.

Ok, here I guess I wonder whether I really need to get up there? I think this was Oksøy, a 5+. My fingers were completely numbed by the cold granite. Strange to climb without knowing if your fingers hurt. Something to get used for someone who has mostly been in an inside climbinghall for the last years.

You always need to be dressed for success... Wait till you see the helmet on top of my woolen hat. Might need to improve on my outdoor climbing gear if I want to stand out more gracefully on this blog.

For the climbingroutes at Odderøya, check out this file. The local climbing club, ckk has been so great as to make sure the bolting has been securely done. THANK YOU GUYS!!

Kristiansand Kunsthall: Game of Life.

This is the last Artsy-stuff on this blog. For more artsy stuff, surf to arteriet.blogspot.no

1st of September 2012 Christiansand Kunstforening became Kristiansand Kunsthall. That is quite a big step, and a change that will define many of the artistic and curatic choices that will be made in the future. Kristiansand is a still growing city and the focus will inevitably move from an inward to a more open outwardlooking profile. Only exciting news! Here some of my own shots from the exhibition. More photos, and definitely more professional photos, can be found on this link.

Game of Life: Etter Rutenettet. Curated by Jan Freuchen and Sigurd Tenningen
(a selection of works only)

Olaf Isaachsen painted motives of the city in ruins after the fire of 1892 (oil on canvas). Pupil of Courbet, but quite an impressionist style, and according to the curators at the start of a journey of abstraction in the 20th century artworld.

Here we dive right into it, Not Yet Titled (2012) by Else Marie Jakobsen, well known weaver here, Ann Cathrin November Høibo and Tori Vrånes. Installation standing before Beirut (2000) by Kjell Mardon Gunvaldsen.

          
Regel 30 (2008) by Kristoffer Myskja. An analogue machine. From a set of rules, complex and seemingly random patterns are produced. One of the elementary cellular automaton rules introduced by Stephen Wolfram in 1983 (Wolfram 1983, 2002). It specifies the next color in a cell, depending on its color and its immediate neighbors. Its rule outcomes are encoded in the binary representation . This rule is illustrated above together with the evolution of a single black cell it produces after 15 steps (Wolfram 2002, p. 55).

The Moen (Terje Moen), Diverse tegninger (2012). Triggering the sometimes ambivalent feelings of coming back to ones birthplace... He does it beautifully!

Gridlock (2012), Dirkjan van der Linde. Dutch artist. I like it. His other works are even better. Check out his website here.

This work by Erik Pirolt is one of the great and fun features of this exhibition, according to my own  taste. Paradisteleskopet (2012) is a hanging livingmachine, for the occasion with an accompanying seagull wearing headphones. What I found so charming with this installation is its friendly, humorous and welcome atmosphere. The Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout has also been busy with the cities and living for many years, but his approach is more that of a problemsolver, creating new problems as he goes. The solution of Pirolt is a happy, dreamy solution. I like that.

Sorry for the askew photographing of Display Unit (center) 5 by Øystein Aasan. Here you can find his portfolio. I really enjoy his modesty. Clean cut aesthetic and I also think he is extremely stubborn. I like that.

An Incomplete Account of Past Sensations (2012) by André Tehrani. Aceton and pencil on paper, map based on Wikipedia´s list of riots in the 20th century. Tehrani's website here.

Finally, Anngjerd Rustad, Landskap med tekst (2012). Pencil, paper, copper. The unstructured lines fascinate me. They carry their own power. I do not understand why she insisted on bringing in a written message between the pencilwork. I enjoy extremely though the forceful statement of the intwined lines, both copper and on paper\wall.

There are still some days left of the exhibition. About Game of Life and the road to abstraction, not only in art, but also in science. Even if this theme, how art meets science and cityplanning in abstraction, might be more an idea of the curators than specifically the artists that were invited: as a statement it works for me. I can enjoy the the suggestion of a change of imaginary focus in such a well built up exhibition.

(Remember: from now on, the artsy stuff will not be posted on this blog anymore, but on my new blog: http://arteriet.blogspot.no)

Colleagues from Groningen visiting

One of our first posts was Michaels last day of work early march. Half joking, plans were made that the colleagues from Groningen would come and visit us here in Kristiansand. And almost half a year later they actually came. Absolutely fantastic to be host to them!

After a days travel they arrived at one o'clock at night in Kristiansand night 21. september. It was one of the coldest nights this season, near freezing point. Most of them stayed in Budgethotel (the budget bit is true). Three stayed at our place.

Friday moning started with breakfast at Michaels office. Michaels boss gave a brief introduction to the (plans of) the city of Kristiansand. Then a short tour through the city where we couldn't miss this off course.

After that we walked to a lookout point over the city.

In the afternoon most of us went to the Nøgne ø brewery in Grimstad: the uncompromising brewery. It started as a micro brewery, but has grown and now houses in an old energy plant. We got a tour and got to taste beers of course.

I think most of us were impressed by their India Pale Ale (we are at least)

Than back to Kristiansand for food and more beer.

Saturday morning we served breakfast at our place. At 11 o'clock a colleague from Michaels new work came. From our house we did the a city tour and got to see a lot of places we heard about the day before. We experienced Kristiansands three H's (Hav = Sea, Hus = houses or city and Hei = the wood very close by). Here we are near the harbour.

and past the fishmarket to the concerthall with a very special architecture: Kilden

We ended with the charm of Posebyen. This is the old part of the city centre that survived the last city fire in the 1890's.

The last evening we served food and drinks at our place which fortunately is big enough to house 14. The whole weekend the weather was fantastic and we could even sit on the balcony in the late afternoon on saturday. Marianne made fantastic food and the fridge was filled with nice goodies.Here a view from our hous in nice autumn surroundings.

We feel priviliged that so many former colleagues come to visit us here. Realy moving.

Thanks to Cor van der Veen for taking beautiful pictures that we are allowed to show here!!

The 3G's of Telemark

Norway just Rocks. On the way to the top of Gaustatoppen.

One wonders how much work lies behind a path

Michael on the rocks

On Gaustatoppen

On Gleksefjell, second G, close to Bø. With my nice RUG sweater!

Someone just ties this cabin to the ground with a chain. Wondering how grand the little creek becomes in spring...

How to get through mushy swamp in Norway. Mind you, they are everywhere. Bring your own board.

How 'bout Presidents of the USA, in Gvarv of all places. They also serve their own beer at this festival. Gives all a massive headache according to the camping-owner. But hell, it's ecological!

Last G, Gygrestolen. Three tops in three days. We are quite chuffed with ourselves!

Mike just turned 40. Any advise for the next forty years?