The Public Conversation about 22 July

In the next few years, while the Government Quarter is being renovated, the 22 July Centre will be located in Teatergata 10, with the exhibition The Public Conversation about 22 July.

Exhibition elements showing the rose march with an unknown number of people lifting roses. Boy in front. A person stands reading exhibition text in the background.

The exhibition The Public Conversation About 22 July.

Fartein Rudjord / 22. juli-senteret

PERMANTENT EXHIBITION

An exhibition that presents the course of events on 22 July 2011 through a timeline, and which highlights the subsequent attempts to explain the causes and consequences of the terror attack.

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How do we make sense of 22 July? And what is the impact of the terror attack today and in the future? These questions are key to the exhibition. A minute-by-minute time line presents the course of events on 22 July 2011. The exhibition also includes different narratives present in Norwegian discourse today. The narratives attempt to understand the terror attack, its causes and consequences, and seek to explore the impact of 22 July 2011 today and in the years to come.

Some of the narratives presented in the exhibition are well-known and will immediately resonate with the Norwegian people, while others have been more in the background. Some have been controversial and difficult. These narratives about 22 July live side by side in Norway today. They all contribute to the public conversation about 22 July.

Many people are living a life that will be forever marked by 22 July, by great loss, memories of bottomless grief, and the fight to survive and continue living.

Others will never forget where they were, and what their immediate thoughts were when they heard about the bomb at the government building complex and the shooting on Utøya. There are also children in school today who were not born in 2011. They will inherit and administer this part of history.

When you talk to today’s youth about the war [World War II], they ask, ‘which war?’. But all of them know about 22 July. They deserve for us to be capable of having a bigger conversation.

Tonje Brenna, survivor from Utøya and Secretary General of AUF in 2011.

Vårt Land, 26 December 2019.

Image of exhibition area with overlay text "Conversation on 22 July"

The Public Conversation About 22 July.

A learning centre should also discuss the motivation for acts of terror and their consequences. We rely on the best expertise available in 2020 to discuss such matters. However, the 22 July Centre is responsible for the content of this exhibition in its entirety.

The public conversation about 22 July can both comfort and unite, split and challenge us. People with and without memories of 22 July will continue this conversation. The aim of the exhibition is to contribute to a knowledge-based, open and inclusive conversation about 22 July in the years to come.

Thanks to:

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Ingeborg Hjorth, Tone Jørstad, Ana Perona-Fjeldstad, Claudia Lenz, Cora Alexa Døving, Kyrre Kverndokk, Helge Renå, Iver Tangen Stensrud, Indigo Trigg-Hauger, The European Wergeland Center, Utøya AS Norwegian centre for violence and traumatic stress studies (NKVTS), Norwegian Government Security and Service Organisation with subcontractors (G.S.S.O), Statsbygg with subcontractors and the photographers who have given their permission to use their images.

The exhibition contains elements from the 22 July Centre´s exhibition from 2015, which was developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Tor Einar Fagerland, Line Gjermshusengen, Ingeborg Hjorth, Åshild Karevold, and Atle Aas.

Special thanks to National Support Group after 22 July, AUF, bereaved, survivors, and all affected by the terror attack on 22 July 2011.

The exhibition The Public Conversation About 22 July is curated by the 22 July Centre.

Project leader: Lena Fahre, Director

Concept, content, and design: The 22 July Centre, Anne Lene Andersen, Maja Gudim Burheim, Ana Rita Ferreira, Stine Furan, Christina Marwold, Bjørg Kristine Michalak-Paulsen, Øystein Emil Norén, Julie Ræstad Owe, Anne Talsnes.

Exhibition architecture: Blakstad Haffner AS, Arkitekt Atle Aas AS

Graphic Design: Miksmaster Creative AS

Interaction Design: Logic Interactive AS

Objects: The National Archives, Oslo police District, Utøya AS, private donations

Print: Megaprint AS

Film production: NRK, G.S.S.O, Red Ant AS, Godt sagt AS

Photos for «To live on»: Andrea Gjestvang

Carpentry and assembly: Jøndal og Hoff AS

Lighting design: Halvor Næss Belysningsdesigner AS

Textiles: Kvint Blendex AS

Translation: Allegro språktjenester

Published Sep 27, 2022 Last updated Oct 14, 2024