Public commission

Jarfjord grensevaktstasjon/ Jarfjord border station, Jarfjord/ Kirkenes. KORO, 2016

The Emerald Tablet / Smaragdtavlen, 2016

Laser cut Trespa boards (modulated construction boards in high-pressure laminate)

Size: 200m2


Commissioned by KORO

Subcontractor: VINK AS

The 196 kilometer long border between Norway and Russia in Finnmark is peaceful, but strictly guarded by Norwegian and Russian soldiers. Here runs the outer border of the Schengen area, and in 2011 it was decided in the Norwegian parliament; Stortinget that the six medium-sized border stations that have guarded the border were to be replaced by two new, large and operational border stations. The Norwegian artist Josefine Lyche (b. 1973) was assigned the art commission for Jarfjord border station. With the artwork Smaragdtavlen, she has used the entire external roof over the main entrance as a three-dimensional, checkered "canvas". Lyche is known for working conceptually, and for her metaphysical, often esoteric approaches to art. She is concerned with connecting lines between the occult and the scientific. For the artwork at the border station, she has used so-called Trespaplater as material, which are modulated construction boards in high-pressure laminate. Nine cold and warm color shades each fill a cassette in the ceiling. The geometric, right-angled shapes and the use of color plates make the artwork strict and disciplined in form, but the idea behind it is that the well-thought-out color pattern forms a metaphysical portal to heaven. The colors have been chosen based on alchemy's principle of nature's main elements, air, fire, earth and water, and symbolize a landscape where air meets earth, water meets fire and art meets nature and architecture.

Photos by: Jenny-Marie Johnsen and the artist