Sortland is a municipality in the Norwegian north (Nordland) and includes the islands of Langøya and Hinnøya in the Vesterålen archipelago [1]. The municipality has between 10,000 and 11,000 inhabitants. And I want to tell you why it is also called Blåbyen or Blue City.
The idea of a blue city is not new, but it was revolutionary for Sortland. I still remember the old town of Jodhpur in Rajasthan (India), which also has many blue houses [2]. This was probably not the decisive factor in the idea of providing the city of Sortland with blue houses. The project developed from an idea by the artist Bjørn Elvenes [3].
Bjørn Elvenes studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, in the 1990s. When he returned to Norway, he was of course not yet able to make a living from his art, he was already making unique pieces of furniture - to be honest, one of my brothers still does that - and then he had the idea of turning the city into a work of art. He wanted to make the city a blue city by painting the houses blue and so make an artistical statement. Interestingly, the residents were not at all convinced by this project, because they thought blue was an unnatural, cold and horrible color. But the mayor and the city council were very impressed by the project, probably because they recognized its touristic potential. As is often the case with artists, a dispute arose over rights and who was in charge of the artistic orientation. Bjørn Elvenes probably saw the conversion of his art project into an urban development concept as a kind of profanation of his idea. But the project had already been launched and was being continued by other projects, so that today Sortland appears as Blåbyen.
Bjørn Elvenes has an art gallery in the shopping centre “Skibsgården” [4], which is opposite the Kulturfabrikken [5]. I think that this project has made the town of Sortkand, far up in the north, more colorful and is also an investment in more culture. But culture is what makes life worth living.
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortland
[2] More on Jodhpur: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur I promise to look through my pictures from Jodhpur and write a blogpost about the blue city.
[3] https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_bl%C3%A5_byen_ved_sundet and
https://www.norwegenstube.de/bjorn-elvenes
[4] Galleri Bjørn Elvenes, Skibsgården, Strandgata 12; https://www.instagram.com/bjornelvenes/?hl=de
[5] Kulturfabrikken Sortland KF is a municipal enterprise and operates the „cultural center "Kulturfabrikken", a diverse meeting place that seethes and boils with creativity and activity.“ https://www.kulturfabrikkensortland.no/nyttig-info/gavekort/#general
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