Art at Charlottenlund vgs

Artists: Olav Christopher Jenssen. Title: ‘The Lingaphones’ 2012 Sverre Koren Bjertnæs. Title: ‘Uten tittel’ 2012 Marit Justine Haugen, Dan Zohar. Title: ‘Kokonger i tre’ 2012 Maja Nilsen. Title: ‘What has been will be again’ 2012 Hanne Lydia Opøien Kristoffersen. Title: ‘The Iranian dinner’ 2010. Art consultant: Ellen Reksterberg.

Outside Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School, Olav Christopher Jenssen’s two sculptures stand as a signal and a landmark for the school. The oval metal sculptures covered in white lacquer are both of the same size and the same flat shape, and they both have a similar pattern of hole punches and notches around the edge. ‘The Lingaphones’ can be regarded as a part of Jenssen’s characteristic, but ever changing ornamental art, which, for example, can be seen in the vestibule of Trøndelag Teater. Olav Christopher Jenssen is one of Norway’s most renowned artists, and he is well known internationally. He has lived and worked in Berlin for many years, but has kept a close connection to his home country.

Other important names from the Norwegian contemporary art scene are also represented at Charlottenlund. A large concrete wall by the southern entrance is almost completely engulfed by Sverre Koren Bjertnæs’s enormous first public art commission. The artwork is made from aluminium sheets and measures 4 x 8 metres. The shiny surface makes a mirror reflection of both the surrounding interior and exterior, and simultaneously clearly depicts the pattern of a tree’s growth rings. The cut-out pattern makes a graphic effect, like an imprint on the shiny surface.

Marit Justine Haugen and Dan Zohar were commissioned to create a sculpture doubling as a seating area in the entrance vestibule. They ended up making five “cocoons”, where each seat provides a sense of private space, and at the same time, the cut-out “windows” in them make it possible to communicate. The Norwegian-Israeli couple, who together constitute creative practice Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter (HZA), have become well known in Trondheim due to their many public art commissions: at Skjermvegen and Breidablikk kindergartens and at Julius Paltiels plass. At Charlottenlund, they chose to work with pine in their user-friendly, functional artwork. Norsk Limtre, Mosvik, supplied the materials and the artists collaborated with Snekkeriet Verdal on the production. The bottom parts of the cocoons are made from hardwearing cross grain wood, and the sidewalls from lamella. The polished woodwork has been finished with linseed oil and beeswax, which give off a pleasant scent and contribute to the well-being of the people using the seats.

On a wall in the staff room, Maja Nilsen has contributed with a series of six circular pictures of objects, framed by identical white square frames. Previously, the work was mounted on a concrete wall in the canteen. Opposite an orange coloured wall next to one of the stairways hangs a large-scale photograph by Hanne Lydia Opøien Kristoffersen. The motif in the photograph is of a cross-cultural nature, offering perspectives on a theme of current interest: immigration and integration.