Exhibition at the National Library of Norway from 7th October 2020 – 30th January 2021.

The Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboes (1920–1976) authorship was created against a world-historical backdrop of arms races, climate struggle, colonial rebellion and nuclear threat. For the first time in history, mankind could wipe itself out.

Bjørneboe put his own contemporary problems under debate. A main theme of authorship is the vulnerable life of man on the planet, what it means to live in this world we share and care for, but at the same time destroy through war, greed, selfishness and ignorance. Bjørneboe’s approach to these issues has, with the refugee flows of our time, acute climate threat and ever greater skewed distribution of the world’s resources, renewed timeliness.

Through notes, manuscripts, first editions, original illustrations, television and radio clips, this exhibition shows how Jens Bjørneboe from start to finish, in novels and poems as well as in essays and newsstands, the injustice, rawness and bestiality of human life on earth.

But without hope, it’s not. In 1953 Bjørneboe writes in the poem “The Night”:

“Our dark, cool globe
“Great location, friendly staff”

Opening hours at the National Library

FACEBOOK VIDEO: Digital tour of “The Art of Making The Earth Uninhabitable”