Trollslottet

In 1994 and 1996, Vebjørn Sand was asked to join Norwegian explorers on two expeditions to Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. He was resurrecting the tradition of the expedition painter last practiced by Edward Wilson on the ill-fated Scott Expedition in 1911.

Sand produced a number of oil paintings of Antarctica that are among his most haunting works. After returning to Norway, Sand says, " I wanted to recreate an image of the polar landscape we had seen, reminding the Norwegian people of (famous Norwegian Polar explorers) Nansen and Amundsen as well as the fairy tale castles of Norwegian folklore." This inspiration lead to a collaboration with renowned Production Designer, Timian Alsaker, the designer responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Lillehammer Olympic Games.

The Norwegian fairytale castle floating in the distance, a symbol of human longing, called "Soria Moria," made famous in a painting by the renown Norwegian artist, Kittelsen, became their thematic departure. They built an outdoor gallery evocative of the distant castle in ice. Ten ethereal towers were lit from within with magical blue-pink light. The castle was situated on a hill overlooking Oslo, visible from all over the city.

Trollslottet (or The Troll Castle, as it was called,) was more about myth than architecture. It was meant to show Sand's art in an environment evocative of that forbidding frontier yet it became a cultural phenomenon that continues to enchant even after it has become a memory. For the four months it was up 150,000 visitors came, including Crowned Heads of State and Prime Ministers. Says Sand, "We do not intend to reconstruct it. In fact, the ice castle shouldn't be a part of this world… it will remain in everyone's soul."

The project was called The Troll Castle (Trollslottet) after one of the Antarctic formations in Queen Maud Land. Which Sand and the Norwegian expeditions climbed for the first time in history. The Troll Castle was open from December 21, 1997 to March 20, 1998. The material used for the installation was stainless steel piers draped with special fabric and covered with ice and natural snow. Helicopters ferried the materials into the precarious site.

An early idea was to build Trollslottet using blocks of ice to create a castle on a frozen lake. This structure would certainly have been impermanent, melting away as the winter changed to spring. But the literalness would have robbed it of its evocative mystery. Choosing the form and location they did allowed the installation to be open to interpretation. It had a collective, archetypal presence that generated a shared secret: "What is that up there on the hill? Where did it come from?"

The word spread quickly. The cool blue color of the internal light of the structures, quite literally manipulated human perception of distance and size by playing with the contrast of cool and warm light. Seen in the context of the surrounding neighborhood - which had a primarily warm incandescent light -its blue light created an illusion of size. Its location, visible from all over Oslo, also gave a curious juxtaposition: It was both remote and always there, like a dream image lurking on the edge of consciousness.

Trollslottet was a dream from a distance but inside it was a village. It was a tribal encampment and the most basic form of human gathering - the circle. It was a gathering place for the music and culture of the people. It was a spiritual place. It was characteristic of twenty-first century global community, situational and kinetic.