– a project based on Ruth Maier’s collection of poems with the same title.

A group of performers have selected and memorized poems from Ruth Maier’s collection of poems, En lys sommers usigelige smerte (A bright summer's unspeakable pain). When meeting the audience, the performers recite the poems they have memorized, and then pass them on by oral transmission. The audience can both read (listen to) the poems, and bring them with them in their in memory (by heart) when they leave.

The project takes place by the sculpture "Overrasket" (Surprised) in Vigelandsparken in Oslo, which Ruth Maier was modelling for.

Background:
Ruth Maier (1920-1942) was an Austrian Jewish refugee who came from Vienna to Norway during WWII. She lived in Norway for almost four years, before she was deported during the great mass arrest on November 26, 1942, when Jews were deported from the port of Oslo. She was killed in Auschwitz only a few days later. Her diaries and poems were preserved by author and poet Gunvor Hofmo, with whom she had a close friendship and love affair. The collection of poems and prose sketches A bright summer's unspeakable pain collects Ruth Maier's poems from diaries and other manuscripts, and was published after editing by author and poet Jan Erik Vold in 2012.
Ruth Maier was an art student and was the nude model for Gustav Vigeland's sculpture 'Surprised' which stands in Vigelandsparken. The sculpture was cast in bronze and was first unveiled in 2002.

The project is developed by artist Mette Edvardsen on an invitation by curators Håkon Lillegraven and Bjørn Hatterud for their exhibition PARADE at the Vigeland museum.
With Ann-Christin Kongsness, Marte Reithaug Sterud, Martin Lervik, Marit Ødegaard, Martin Slaatto, Andrea Skotland and Mette Edvardsen. Supported by Norsk Kulturråd

PERFORMANCES:
(O)UTPOST FLØRLI, rimi/imir scenekunst (Flørli) 2, 3 June 2023
PARADE, Vigelandsmuseet (Oslo) 18 June, 20 August, 27 August, 3 September, 10 September, 17 September 2022