House of the Winds

In the project description for The House of Winds, Sissel Tolaas says that she wanted to choose a geographic site in Alstadhaug where the weather conditions would be at their most extreme. She wanted to create a work of art which, while using the elements, would itself be used by them.

The House of Winds reminds us of anonymous laboratories, functional places for scientific research. The propellers placed in the openings in the walls of the round building rotate at the speed of the wind. The movement created by the wind energy, the Latin inscriptions of the names of the winds, together with the points of compass, lead us into a field of references where the categorising systems of science are applied in artistic expression. Science and scientific thinking meet the endeavour of art to make things beautiful, visible and concretely present in our lives.