Exhibition Opening and Concert

Exhibition and Concert

Hardanger Folk Museum in Utne invites you to the opening of the exhibition Decoration on Wood and a concert with Lajla Storli and Steinar Strøm, Sunday, May 4 at 3:30 PM.

This will be a concert where two traditions are equally represented, a fascinating encounter between the fiddler from Sigdal, Steinar Strøm, and the fiddler from Hardanger, Lajla Storli. Steinar and Lajla got to know each other in 2010 when Lajla moved from western to eastern Norway. Over the years, they have learned a lot from listening to each other’s playing, which has been a great source of inspiration. Now they want to share their music with the audience and highlight what happens when two performing Hardanger fiddle players meet, each deeply rooted in their own tradition. They focus on showcasing tunes that are meaningful to them, and the audience may get to hear some musical interplay featuring sounds from both east and west.

Decoration on Wood

In the exhibition Decoration on Wood we have gathered a large selection of treasures from the museum’s collections. Many of which have never been on public display before.

Rose painting “rosemaling”, geometric woodcarving “karveskurd”, and pyrography “svidekor” can be found on a range of beautifully preserved objects from the 18th and 19th centuries. These items come from farms in the Hardangerfjord region and were once used in everyday life. The selection of decorated objects was far from random. Here, you will find ale bowls with horse-head handles, rose-painted bowls, and goblets with pyrography—used for drinking beer at festive gatherings. Butter molds and raised serving dishes were also part of social occasions, brought to the farm in painted baskets along with porridge containers. Chests and boxes, used to store treasured belongings, were similarly decorated. The motifs in the decorations have deep historical roots, symbolizing fertility and abundance.

Karveskurd is a form of wood carving in which the designs often consist of geometric patterns, such as circles and rosettes. Svidekor involves heating iron stamps in various geometric shapes and burning patterns into the wood. Both of these techniques are very old. Rosemaling however, gained widespread popularity from the late 18th century onward. It features stylized flowers and vines, as well as biblical scenes, exotic animals, and portraits. Many renowned rose painters worked in Hardanger, including Gunnar Arnfinnson Aarekol, whose works are prominently featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition includes over 100 objects, all drawn from the museum’s collections.