Borders and boundaries define us from birth. The first are given lovingly by our parents; this is day and that night, here is a boy and there a girl. Soon we learn the limits that Society sets and we begin to impose boundaries upon ourselves. The dream of an unbounded life feels tantalisingly close: Europe is changing; the pace is exhilarating, shocking, terrifying. We have limitless choices: Who to be? Which life to live? And all the while the leaders we have chosen are busy closing borders, fighting terror with terror, erecting new barriers, both physical and psychological, to hold other people at bay. But as soon as someone builds a wall, someone else finds a way to climb it.
KIRKENES
14,8% Immigrants
“I miss all of Russia when I’m in Norway; a kind of nostalgia.”
EIDSVOLL
16,9% Immigrants
“I miss the old city of Grozny but there is nothing left from that. It is like missing your own childhood, but you can´t expect to revisit that. It’s a bit sad to not have the ability to look back in time and touch things you once knew.”
RØROS
6,9% Immigrants
“I miss the smell of rain upon the great oak trees, the wet muddy odour that emanates from the foliage of the forests of Conesus. I miss the distant echo of the crow across the hemlock lakes. I miss the sounds of calling-coyotes, and dark cricket covered fields of goldenrod.”
72 103 FROM POLAND
35 000 FROM LITHUANIA
“I know other people from Poland who have experienced being treated differently at their workplace because of where they are from, but I have not experienced it directly myself. Some people like to joke about it, and I’m ok with that, unless it goes on for too long.”
“The word ‘immigrant’ sounds like something bad. Most people from our region come to Norway for work. I came in 2010 and wasn’t it in 2009 that the economic collapse started in Europe? At one point I had a job in Lithuania and my salary had dropped 3 times. It wasn’t 100% why I left, but it was a big part of it.”
36 887 FROM SWEDEN
17 345 FROM GERMANY
“The biggest difference is that young people in Oslo has more ambition than in Stockholm. In Stockholm it is considered important to do something you like rather than something that society demands of you. I think that in Sweden it is important to live a good life, where as in Norway it is important to live a rich life.”
“I miss the German prices; Norway is very expensive. What I don’t miss very much, is German culture and how crowded it is there. I feel privileged to live in a country where the population is as low as it is in Norway.”
16 431 FROM PHILIPPINES
34 447 FROM PAKISTAN
“I miss the food and the smells. I miss how people were so much more social and together, compared to Norway where most people stay at home, alone with their families.”
“What I have noticed is that the people with the most prejudice towards us are the weakest within the society. I am not the type of person who tolerates being treated differently and I fight against the injustice I face based on where I’m from. I pay my taxes, so I think that I deserve to be fairly treated.”
“I play with girls mostly because the boys say pee and poop alot� Lucia Mynte 5 years
“The boy is blue because he is frozen” Vilmer 6 years
“Boys like more action. Girls are more real, diva, mums and so on” Anna 9 years
“I think that boys´ favourite colour is blue because they where blue clothes a lot”
“I made the colour of the girl´s skirt pink, because I think she would like it”
Eleftheria 9 years
Victor 6 years
“I draw the boy red because he is very angry” Snorre 6 years
“The bridge over to the Barcode is the border between East and West, especially when it comes to architecture. You can see a big distinction there.” Male 24
“I feel the border goes around Majorstua. I feel everyone there is so snobbish. Everyone goes around with waffle jackets or sailing jackets and is just showing off.” Male 22
“For me the border goes from Stortorvet through Grensen and onwards through Ullevålveien, Waldermar Thranes gate and Uelands gate.” Female 39
“Grunerløkka is something in-between East and West. Neither East nor West; like mixing Coke and Solo in a way. It tastes hip and fresh but you soon get tired of it.” Male 26
“For me I would say that the Grønland bus terminal is a border between East and West. I very rarely go to Grønland unless I have to. If I am invited home to some friends there, I always take a taxi.” Woman 27
“I feel the the border between East and West starts at Kongens gate and continues through Møllergata,Uelandsgate, Stavengergata and Maridalsveien.” Male 42
“For me the line between East and West in Oslo is the Akerselva river. There are no limits I do not cross in Oslo. I live in the West but I feel most at home in the East.” Male 31
“I am a 4th or 5th generation resident in Oslo, 83 years old, I think the border is between Storgaten and Trondheimsveien” Female 83
58º39’57.76”N
6 º58’22.35”Ø (GPS) (58.666044,6.972875)
59 º25129.25”N 7 º24’12.41”Ø (59.424791,7.403447)
59 º13155.74”N 7 º29’59.12”Ø (59.232150, 7.499722)
58 º39’55.94”N 7 º03’31.81”Ø (58.665538, 7.058833)
59 º23’32.34”N 7 º24’38.34”Ø (59.392316, 7.4106560)
FINNSKOGEN Site of Anders Behring Breivik’s secret stash of weapons for the year prior to the attacks of 22 july 2011, in which a total of 77 people were murdered.
HOLMLIA
BISPEKAIA
Place where, on Friday 26th January, Benjamin Hermasen (aged 15) was stabbed to death. This was the first race motivated murder in Norway. 3 members of the Neo-Nazi group Boot Boys were later convicted of the murder.
Place where Galina Sandeva was found murdered in her car on 17th December 2015. The 28 year old was a sex worker in Oslo. The police described the murder as especially brutal.
As children we learn what is mine, then what is yours and then what is ours. We discover that we have a Self. We learn our place in Nature, in Society, in Culture. Borders and boundaries bring a feeling of safety, of an ordered and rational world. But as we get older we begin to ask questions: what if borders bring with them security cameras and restrictions of freedom? What then? We are part of a world far beyond the imaginations of our forefathers; we are no longer Lille Norge, we are connecta. This new world calls out to us, telling us to lead limitless lives. Choices that used to be simple have become endlessly complex. Nothing is binary; everything is a spectrum. The terminally na誰ve may still believe that we Norwegians are a race, but we are not even a coherent social group. Our world is complex, enthralling. We have begun to build a very new kind of society, defined as much by mass migration and globalisation as by the old Norse myths. But have we truly removed the old divisions of gender and ethnicity, of money and class? Or are they simply better hidden these days? And while we strive to live in harmony with our own drives and desires, what are we doing to the natural world?
Thea Sletvold Lång
Julie Susanne Weien Forøy
Helena Bosdal
Mirjam Stenevik
Mira Wickman
Trang Doan
Karina Halvorsen Gravdahl
Haakon Sand
Alexander Sæthre
Nina Merethe Skaug
Ida Asalea Dyrud
Arne Bakk
Renate Rasmussen
Belinda Stoe
Alexandra Ezhno
Maria Gossé
Lill-Anita Kultorp
Ida Meyer
Emilie Bjerva
Karoline Brenden Skaug
Frida Takvam Sverdrup
Helene Røiseland
Tanya Schoonrad Wallin
Io Alexa Sivertsen
Heidi Nathalie Hovland
Johanne Isaksen Strenov
Kine-Michelle Bruniera
Asbjørn Hansen
Jon Martin Austad
Ingeborg Løvlie
Kati Palmgren
Atle Blekastad
Malene Saxebøl
Joachim Sollerman
Gønul Eliz Erturk
Helene Kjærgaard
Kristine Rød
Helene Rodvang
First edition published in 2016 by Bilder Nordic The photographers would like to thank Nicholas McLean, Cheryl Newman, Damian Heinisch, Ben McPherson, Marcus Bleasdale, Chris Harrison, Linda Bournane Engelberth, Kristin Svanæs-Soot, Silje Preståsen Strømland, Sara Løvlien and Inge Helland. Covers by Belinda Stoe. Curation and layout by Asalea Dyrud, Jon Martin Austad, Haakon Sand, Trang Doan, Karina Halvorsen Gravdahl, Belinda Stoe, Helene Røiseland and Io Alexa Sivertsen. Designed by Io Alexa Sivertsen and Helene Røiseland. Printing by Print House AS. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording or by any information retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
www.unbounded.no www.bildernordic.no