TO ENCLOSE ONESELF

In 2019, it is 100 years since Nobel Prize-winning author Sigrid Undset settled at Bjerkebæk in Lillehammer. To Enclose Oneself is this summer's main exhibition at Lillehammer Art Museum. 

For Undset, home was the very foundation of life. Both in her literature and life in general, the home plays a decisive role. The Norwegian exhibition title "Å hjemme seg" is taken from Undset herself, where she describes the joy of creating her own place to live. The title has a double meaning. It alludes both to the satisfaction she had in creating a space for herself and her kin, but also to it being a place where she could hide away from the increasing external pressure from the outside world ("å gjemme seg" = "to hide oneself").

The exhibition contains both art and cultural objects which together form the framework of Undset's taste and ideology, including Carl Larsson, Prince Eugen, William Morris, Agnes Slott-Møller, Gerhard Munthe and Theodor Kittelsen. 

To Enclose Oneself is staged as a labyrinthine walk through the many rooms of Sigrid Undset's life. Each room has its own unique colour and theme, and gives an insight into various aspects of her life: Childhood - The journey - Japonism - Home in the North - Lillehammer - Bjerkebæk - Hedevig Anker - The Middle Ages - Religiosity - Happy Times. 

Curator: Cecilie Skeide

Project leader: Gry Pettersbakken