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Process

Epitaph

“The county council had to take responsibility, even when things went awry. Things went particularly wrong in two projects, involving Toshikatsu Endo's Epitaph in Flakstad and Sarkis' Days and Nights in Hadsel. Both artworks had to be removed, because the technical solutions were unsatisfactory. If we had had the foresight to consult with technical expertise from the very beginning, we probably could have avoided this type of problem, which proved costly, in many respects. The continual struggle to keep costs down overshadowed the good solutions in some cases. The artists have all been exceptionally gracious in accepting delays, revisions, and, in some cases, compromises.”
Aaslaug Vaa in “A new discourse”

LETTER FROM THE ARTIST:

"The Conception of a Sculpture in Flakstad"

The first thing I felt during my visit to FLAKSTAD was the strenght and beauty of the nature which was peculiar to this place. At that instant, I knew by intuition that this land was not needing, in any sense, any artistic works such as sculpture. Any works of the sculptor who had separated himself from the secret of community and had started to work as an individual, would have no influence over the land, and such a sculptor would have already been rejected by its nature from the beginning.

I could not, however, acknowledge such powerlessness of mine, because it would automatically mean the negation of my existence as a sculptor. Aside from my fear of being negated, there certainly was a desire brewling deep inside of me to move this place that is immovable. This definitely was the issue of habit and physical response, i.e. the life, of the sculptor.

I really want to move this place.

I desire to create an agitation, even a slight one, in the magnetic field that is being produced by the nature of this land. But this should not be done by adding something new to this land but by realizing a foreign entity which would have been impregnated in this land - thus realizing a two-faceted meaning in this entity.

Only through this method could I find a way to confront with the natural strength that I feel from this land."