Silent witnesses

On top of Storhaugen close to Sjøvegan in Northern Norway lie the ruines of Salangsverket, a former iron mine which started operating in 1907 and closed down after five years in 1912. It left behind foundations and concrete structures on the mountaintop. If you follow the remains of a short traintrack you enter an enormous empty hole in the mountain where the iron ore was taken from.

It’s the story of an unsuccesful mine, which closed down soon after it started due to the lack of iron and heavy working conditions in the wintertime. After the bankrupcy of the compagny all the work abruptly stopped and most of it was left behind as if people would return the next day to continue the work.

It’s still posible to see the trajectory the iron ore made from the mountain down to the shoreline 600 meters lower and approaximatly eight kilometers away. Just follow the concrete foundations of the towers that made the cable car track which now forms a dotted line in the landscape looking from above. Two mountains of debris from the excavation of Salangsverket are lying at the starting point of this track. Crushed into manageable pieces they form impresive volumes, waiting to be taken away and transported down. But that’s over one hundred years ago, the piles of rocks are still there and they became part of the new landscape which is still dominated by nature but has its signs of human interference from the past. Now birds are using the concrete structures as shelter, sheep graze inbetween them and in wintertime everything is cover with snow and for a couple of months all human traces are invisible. 

The two mountains on are made from the same mountain they are placed on, leaving a big hole on one side and creating these two new volumes on the other side. Now they’re becoming part of the natural environment. At this time their almost perfect triangular shape and dark almost black colour give them a lot of contrast with the natural environment. But who knows if and when the mountains will be overgrown by grass and bushes and they will blend into the surroundings, until then they will stand here as silent witnesses of the past.

framed picture in oak or black painted pine 30 by 50 cm

Edition of 3 and 1 AP