Havmannen View Point, Mo i Rana, Nordland, Norway

Havmannen View Point, Mo i Rana, Nordland, Norway  

In Robert Smithson’s Land Art, landscape is joined with non-landscape in so-called «sites.» However, where Smithson worked with dead, empty and often abandoned places bearing traces of industrial activity, Artscape Nordland situates works in the beautiful and violent Nordland nature. Despite this more innocent or intimidating landscape, there is nonetheless a tension between Smithson and Antony Gormley’s respective universes.

Some meters out in the Ranfjord, below downtown Mo i Rana and visible from air, sea and land, stands Antony Gormley’s sculpture Havmannen (Man from the sea). The placement of the sculpture is spectacular while its form is simple: a male figure without arms or a face consisting of parts that have been carved out of black granite and joined in horizontal layers. The water reaches the thighs or hips, depending on the tide. In its passive relationship to the continually shifting light and the rhythm of the tide’s ebb and flow, the granite figure touches on the relationship between the human soul and the forces of nature, challenging the notion that civilization is primarily about language and development.

Epic Norway Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound