Artarena Torbjørnsbu mines

Welcome to Kunstarena Torbjørnsbu mines!

The facility consists of an exhibition room on the 3rd floor with access to the walkway through the mines. In the exhibition room, the history of the mines is briefly reproduced in a timeline on the wall, this is elaborated in more detail in the brochure «Kunstarena Torbjørnsbu mines»

Torbjørnsbu mines were for several centuries among the most important iron mines in the country, but after closure of operations they were forgotten and used as a landfill. With the project Kunstarena Torbjørnsbu mines, Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall wants to pull this mighty open pit out of oblivion and establish a new public space where the public can move in an art and cultural landscape.

We want to show the public how older cultural and industrial history can be combined with new artistic expressions, and thus be place-forming and give a new awareness of the place, art and cultural history. The first sculpture, The Beast (1992) by Bård Breivik (1948-2016), has been mounted, and in the next few years it will be accompanied by several site-specific works.

Our purpose is not to tell the one, official story, but to highlight the many little stories that are hidden and intertwined in the world around us through the ages.