Art is a journey of the mind. Good art sends you on a long journey and Marit Benthe Norheim takes you even further. Life-Boats is a declaration of love, a project which, when the hawsers are cut for the first voyage, will be born and take control over its own destiny.
 
Marit Benthe Norheim spins a net with her art to captivate and invigorate people. Art shouldn’t be self-contained, it should provoke and move us and initiate debates and humane processes. Life-Boats invites us all on board and makes us participants in a project which is about ethical and moral positions towards our fellow human beings.
 
And it is human beings that the artist will call to rally with her many tons of cement when the three floating sculptures set their course towards the rivers and canals of Europe. I regard Marit Benthe Norheim as a woman of ancient viking descent, sending her boats on a voyage, not to ravage with fire, but the direct opposite, to create a network of human bonds, formed by the life-giving encounter across political boundaries and cultural and religious divides. The ships also unite people, with the many volunteers who take part in the realisation of this gigantic sculpture project, even before they are sent off in their search for humanism.
 
The message is simple. Only love - symbolised by women’s ability to create life - can save the world which has wallowed in an eternal struggle between good and evil ever since mankind took control over nature.
 
Go confidently on board. The Life-Boats concept and form is so beautiful it makes the soul cry out.

 

 

Jesper Erik Sørensen,

Journalist at DR