Bølgen – Heyerdahl by Land and Sea

We are now at the final point of our Heyerdahl tour, the town’s largest cultural hall, Bølgen or the Wave. Perhaps it is strange for us to stop here as Heyerdahl himself was never here. The building, designed by the architect Nils Torp, was opened on the 10th of October 2009. We chose this stop for a reason though, partly to remind ourselves that Thor Heyerdahl has had an influence on much more in Larvik than we are able to include in this tour and partly because he gained international renown after dancing on the waves in a manner of speaking. The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was founded in 2000. The institute is a non-profit organisation with support from Larvik Borough and Vestfold County Council. It has been granted direct funding through the Norwegian State budget and was formally located in a building belonging to the borough council in Feyersgate. Today, the institute operates from Sandefjord and is led by Beate Bjørge and works with regional, national and international interdisciplinary projects promoting and developing Heyerdahls ideas. Amongst other things, the institute has arranged Thor Heyerdahl International Day, first held in Larvik in 2005, has established a fund in his name and contributed to the establishment of a professorship in cooperation with the University of Life Sciences in Ås. Other influences to be found in the town are: A street in the area called Tagvedt is named after Thor Heyerdahl and his portrait was painted on the wall of a building in the town centre, which now has been pulled down, but is to be rebuilt. Quality Hotel Grand Farris has its own Thor Heyerdahl suite and the library in Larvik also had its own Heyerdahl section until it burnt down and moved temporarily into a building in the town centre. Fortunately, his books were recovered, along with a section of the Heyerdahl archives. Heyerdahl has been one of the citizens of the world on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list since 2011, along with the archives. The memorial that was perhaps closest to the honorary citizen’s heart was the town’s school of further education which was named after him. The town’s school moved to a brand new building in Torstrand in the summer of 2009. The former Larvik Sixth Form College had already been sailing under the seafarer’s name and ideals for 14 years and a bust of Heyerdahl was unveiled in 1995 when the name of the college was changed to the Thor Heyerdahl School of Further Education. Heyerdahl was present when the bust made by Nico Widerberg was unveiled. Inside Bølgen there is another bust of the town’s first honorary citizen – Thor Heyerdahl was made an honorary citizen on the 300-year anniversary of the founding of the town in 1971. On the mezzanine floor, you can just see him on a plinth through the windows together with the three other honorary citizens; Arne Nordheim, Carl Nesjar and Antonio Bibalo. Unfortunately, the borough council were unable to find the money to have a bust made of the town’s fifth honorary citizen, Ingvar Ambjørnsen. If we turn around and look out towards the horizon which drew the adventure-seeking young boy from Steingata out on what would be a spectacular around the world adventure, we can see two huge cranes and a sculpture outermost on Revhakan at the end of the Revestien walkway. It represents the hull of the balsa rafts RA I and RA II, used by Heyerdahl for his Atlantic crossing in 1969-70. At Bommestad, by the slip road into Larvik, there is a stylised representation of the Kon-Tiki raft. These two sculptures were raised after a competition in 2009, are linked by their theme and remind visitors to Larvik, by land and sea, of two of Thor Heyerdahl’s most well-known expeditions.