When Art Moves Mountains – and People
by Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen
Column on Life-boats, published in a series of newspapers

This weekend, more than 100 people from 17 different countries gathered in Mygdal near Hjørring to cast the last of three floating sculptures: Life-boats. “My ship is loaded with longing”, “My ship is loaded with life” and “My ship is loaded with memories” together form a seaborne narrative about the different stages of a woman’s life: the young girl, the pregnant woman, and the elderly woman. Behind the project stands the visual artist Marit Benthe Norheim, whose artistic work has always taken its point of departure in the feminine – in the fact that we all once lay in a woman’s body as the beginning of our own lives. We share a common origin, even if:

“Some children are Finnish, some from Sudan
Some children are Norwegian, some from Japan
Yes, there are children in every land and nation
Much is different, but inside there is likeness.”

This children’s song, often sung by Norheim’s Norwegian mother, precisely captures the view of humanity that Life-boats will become a floating embassy for, when in the coming years they begin their journey around Denmark and later down through Europe’s rivers and canals. The aim is to bring people together across religion, culture and gender, high and low alike, to reflect on how we can live with one another in the 21st century – despite, or perhaps because of, our differences.

As a starting point for this conversation, the three ships contain a series of stories. On the deck of “My ship is loaded with memories”, for example, stand 19 figureheads, each a portrait of living women who share the fact that they are over 70 and have lived in different cultures. Their stories are all laden with insights from which our own generation would do well to learn. Like Arlett, who survived Auschwitz, but was branded – quite literally – for life.

The very process of creating the three sculptures has itself been a realization of the human outlook and values behind Life-boats. As I write, I sit in a workshop where people from all over the world are gathered. Some are preparing the evening meal (a game stew and a whole roasted pig) for volunteers and numerous guests – the cook expects up to 150 diners. Others are planning the ships’ journey, while in the background an orchestra rehearses for the day’s entertainment. Some do nothing at all, simply enjoying the atmosphere. In another workshop, an army of helpers work to massage concrete into the wire mesh that forms the veins and skeleton of “My ship is loaded with life”. Around nine tons of concrete have, over the course of the weekend, become the skin stretched across the frame of an ageing female body.

Around the world, the project is being followed by researchers, journalists, and others who wish to take part in the community and vision that Life-boats embodies – a vision that seems more necessary than ever, in light of the many desperate people who right now are fleeing and, quite literally, in need of a life-boat.

We are all born of a woman. We have all lain in a womb. May this truth awaken memory and reflection, so that what we share as human beings comes to mean more than what divides us. Water and people – that is the purpose of Life-boats.

Who will sail along?