September 26, 2007
More Museums, Treats and Walks
Since my last entry, we've seen all or part of four more museums, as well as visited the largest park in Oslo, strolled through a much more clearly immigrant section of town (where someone asked us if we wanted to contribute to a mosque, and where David bought some pakoras from a street stand), participated in a "River Walk" in celebration of the autumnal equinox, and been treated to an overnight in a beautiful hotel an hour outside of Oslo, where the entire anthropology department and staff gathered to discuss changes in their program (as a result, I believe of pressure from the state to get students out faster).
We've been to the Resistance Museum in Akershus Fortress, the Museum of Contemporary Art (with very serious and up-t0-date commentary on all the stages from abstract expressionism through minimalism to contemporary conceptual art), the Historical Museum (only made it through the first floor--earliest settlements through the Vikings through the medieval period) and another museum of contemporary art, the Astrup Fearnley Museet. The latter was probably the most eye-opening and enjoyable because of an exhibit of contemporary Chinese art called "China Power Station, Part II." I had talked briefly with an anthro student whose subject was contemporary Chinese art and she had tried to explain, in response to my questions, that, yes, contemporary Chinese artists consider themselves connected to international postmodern art (installations and the like), but they are also unique. Seeing this exhibit helped us to understand just what that meant. Much of the exhibit was digital and oddly humorous. There was a video about a group of friends who buy a used car and try to travel to China's borders to "infiltrate" them with toy remote control tanks and other such "military" toys. Seemed very tongue-in-cheek indeed. The display included all the many items taken on this trip--packaged soup, underwear, toothpaste, etc. There was also a video of a spider exploring what seemed like a couple of naked human bodies (up hills, into crevasses--you get the picture), which, accompanied by jolly music, was almost laugh-out-loud funny. And among the nondigital pieces there was a wildly listing "city" consisting of famous buildings from many places (e.g. the Pentagon), all constructed out of pigskin (sewn, it appeared). For a city of half a million people, Oslo seems remarkably well endowed with cultural opportunities. And it's very walkable (throngs of people out on the weekends, lots in the museums and parks) and has a very good system of trams, buses and trains as well.
The weather is slowly getting a bit cooler, with more gray and rainy days. I sometimes feel I don't want to go out (spoiled Californian that I am) into the chill, but discover that I am stripping layers of clothing off once we've been out for a while, walking briskly. One of our recent walks was in Vigeland Sculpture Park which contains 212 striking sculptures--depicting humanity in all its aspects--which was started in 1924 by Gustav Vigeland. I've included an example above. The more markedly "immigrant" section of town we walked in is called Grønland--best Salvation Army thrift shop I've ever seen, but in spite of a half hour spent browsing in it, no sale!
On September 20, we were invited by a woman in the anthro department to join her and, as it turns out, two young daughters, as well as her friend and her young daughter, on a "River Walk." Apparently, the occasion was a celebration of the autumnal equinox. The mayor--or was it a candidate for the mayoralty?--inaugurated the ceremonies, emphasizing (apparently), the themes of light and warmth, important as the year turns toward the dark. We were told there were 30,000 people present. The entire length of the riverbank was studded with candles, various performers were situated at intervals, as were displays (including trees decorated in aluminum foil) created by schoolchildren. There were choirs, drummers, a rock band, but most spectacular were the fire-eaters who performed at the opening ceremony. These guys were stripped to their waists showing off their elaborate tattoos and were remarkably good at dancing with flaming torches, swallowing flame, running fire all over their bodies without apparently singeing themselves, and looking just a little bit demonic. See the picture, taken by David, above. The fire-eaters were among the most professional acts. The whole experience felt pleasantly medieval. And rather small-townish, though Oslo has half a million inhabitants. It was a mild night and we enjoyed our brisk hour and half walk downstream on the bank of the river Akerselva--now an environmental park (cleaned up from industrial pollution)--which has quite a few rapids and waterfalls.
A couple of days before our River Walk we were treated to an overnight at a hotel about an hour away from Oslo in Holmsbu, as guests of the anthro department. The setting of the hotel, on Oslofjord, was beautiful and peaceful. Picture above. I understand that some of the women actually went swimming in the ocean (brrr!), but I contented myself with a swim in the slightly-heated pool and a warmup in the jacuzzi. Once again, there was scrumptious and abundant food. It was a smoked salmon lover's paradise (several kinds), and there were, as well, mussels, shrimp and what looked like miniature lobsters (though David gave up on his, unable to gain entry), not to mention a variety of salads and meats, and very-bad-for-me cakes. We were told by folks that we would get tired of the food at these events because it was always the same, but, alas, that doesn't seem to have happened yet.
I got to talk with several faculty and staff members. Once again I got the impression (and was sometimes told outright) that Norwegian women don't worry about combining career and motherhood because of the benefits they receive in this welfare state. In fact, because of these benefits, it would appear, the birthrate (unlike in other European countries, such as Italy) is quite high. Take a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4786160.stm We certainly have noticed that parenting is totally accepted in the academic world. It seems to be expected, for example, that everyone will leave at around 4 o'clock; that is when children get picked up from daycare.
Least you think I am waxing too idealistic about all these attractive aspects of Norwegian life, I will add a bit of ethnographic detail that moves in another direction, perhaps. We did notice that, pretty much as in France, work life is separated from home life and life with friends. New people on the faculty in anthro don't seem to be invited to dinner at other faculty members' houses; in fact it would seem that most of the faculty do not socialize with each other. Kind of lonely, it appears, for people who don't have social networks, such as those coming from other countries.
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