Norway unveils new memorial to victims of Breivik's attacks. It features a sandpiper made of stones

On July 22, 2011, Norway experienced the largest terrorist attack in its recent history. First, neo-Nazi Anders Breivik detonated a car bomb near the government quarter in Oslo, killing eight people. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to the island of Utøya, where the summer camp of the youth wing of the center-left Norwegian Labour Party (AUF) was taking place, and opened fire on its participants. As a result, another 69 people died, exclusively young people and teenagers. Hundreds were injured.

As reported by the BBC, a new memorial dedicated to all 77 victims of the tragedy was inaugurated in the Norwegian capital on Sunday. The ceremony was attended by survivors of the attack, relatives of the deceased, Crown Prince Haakon, and government representatives.

The memorial, named Upholding, is located in the renovated government quarter of Oslo, near the site where the explosion occurred in 2011.

According to KORO, the state organization responsible for art projects in public spaces in Norway, the memorial's core is a large steel frame previously used to move Pablo Picasso's monumental work "The Fishermen."

Павялічыць

The work was located on the wall of one of the buildings in the Oslo government quarter, damaged during the 2011 terrorist attack. When the building was demolished, a fragment of the concrete wall with the image was cut out and moved, and the frame itself became part of the new memorial.

It supports a 12-meter stone mosaic depicting a river sandpiper, reeds, and branches reflected in the waters of Lake Tyrifjorden, where Utøya island is located. The names of all 77 victims are engraved on the memorial.

The artist, Matias Faldbakken, said he chose this bird after seeing it on Utøya. According to him, the memorial has two goals: to honor the memory of the victims and to remind society of the need to protect democracy from the far-right ideologies that inspired the terrorist.

Павялічыць

Norwegians themselves helped complete the mosaic. Over three weeks, about two thousand people — survivors of the attack, relatives of the deceased, teenagers, and other volunteers — laid the last seven thousand stones together with the artist. The last one was laid by Merete Stamneshagen, head of the National Support Group after the July 22 events, whose daughter died on Utøya island.

In 2012, Anders Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison. This is the maximum term provided by Norwegian law. However, it can be extended indefinitely if the convicted person continues to pose a danger to society.

Over the years of his imprisonment, Breivik has repeatedly tried to change his detention conditions through the courts. He partially won a lawsuit regarding human rights violations in 2016, but that decision was later overturned. In 2022, the court denied him parole, recognizing that he had not changed and remained dangerous. In 2024, his lawsuit against the state, in which he claimed that isolation from other prisoners violated his rights, was also rejected.

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