That’s all from me!
Our historian, Lasse Hermansen Bjørnland, has had his last day at work at Blaafarveværket. He has written a few words to mark the occasion.
Almost 10 years ago, I was called in for a job interview at Blaafarveværket. At the time, I didn’t really associate much with that name. I had some vague memories of a farm and a large open space with old houses, but that was about it. As I recall, I thought of Blaafarveværket as – to quote Kristopher Schau – «I associated Blaafarveværket with some place my parents fancied going to».[1] How wrong I was to think that.
The Blaafarveværket turned out to be something quite different from what I had thought it was. I realised this very quickly after taking up my post on 1 November 2016. Arsenic production, blue pigment from Modum to China (via Drammen, Amsterdam and Jakarta), leeches, amputations, cobalt DNA and modern cobalt refining. The keywords speak for themselves.
And yet, there is perhaps something else that has also captivated me during my years here in Modum. There is something about the landscape that lies between the work itself and Skuterudflaten. Something indefinable that I cannot quite put into words. I have often sat at the top of Sydgruvene, by the foreman’s cottage, when the birch heath on the eastern side of Hoggvarden is bathed in the autumn light. I’ve felt the same sensation when the morello cherry trees on Skuterudhøyden blossom in spring, or when the ravens fly over the spot where Witloch found the first cobalt. It’s that indefinable feeling that comes over me when I see these places. Even though I can’t put into words what the feeling is, I think I know how it came about. I think it’s because of Tone.
Tone Sinding Steinsvik is as powerful as the Haugfossen waterfall in spring. I soon found that out when, exhausted, I headed home from my last job interview before being offered my current position. I’d assumed the interview would last about 30 minutes, but five hours later – and three missed calls from my boyfriend – I stumbled out to the car after a particularly gruelling ordeal. Tone’s enthusiasm, knowledge and ability to explain things (even whilst driving on uneven terrain) completely wore me out.
It is perhaps this enthusiasm and energy that characterise Tone, but that is not what has shaped me the most. What has shaped me is the way Tone has taught me to look at art and the landscape. Notice the details and take your time. Look at a picture several times.
A good colleague, Sverre Følstad, wrote that the Theodor Kittelsen Museum complements the cobalt mines and, together, they form a «total work of art». Perhaps that is what Blaafarveværket is today? A kind of work of art. Paintings combined with ancient hills, gnarled pine trees and old buildings. All with cobalt as the common thread. Rocks a billion years old, burnt and blasted out of the mountain, hauled down to the smelting furnaces, melted into blue pigment that could form beautiful flowers on a white porcelain plate made on the other side of the world.
It is worth bearing in mind that Blaafarveværket has been there for 250 years, but it has never been run as consistently as it has since the museum opened in 1978. Things have been steadily improving right up to the present day. It is now approaching its 50th anniversary. Wegner, Bøbert, Bernstein and Voigt never managed that. They had to battle against economic fluctuations, fluctuating demand for cobalt and keep pace with rapid technological development. The Steinsvik family found something timeless when they started out. Culture, hospitality and authentic experiences. These are things that never go out of fashion, as reflected in Blaafarveværket’s visitor numbers.
To conclude today, I would like to quote someone who perhaps expresses what I myself feel as I now step down from my post. As a historian, I cannot focus solely on the present, so I must look far back into the past. To Jacob Mumsen. Personal physician to the Foreign Minister of Denmark-Norway, Andreas Peter Bernstorff. Mumsen visited the Blaafarveværket in June 1788. As he was about to leave the works, he wrote in his diary something that reflects how I feel as I write this:
Moved by […] the sincere kindness of these good people, with whom one lives without constraint in mutual trust, I recall these days that I enjoyed, far from dear friends, among good people, fill me with gratitude to the Almighty, through whose goodness we live, breathe and have our being.[2]
That’s all from me!
[1] Podcast: Schau, Kristopher. «Why Blaafarveværket?» Recommended. Published on 15 May 2023
[2] Steinsvik, Tone Sinding. The cobalt mines and the Blaafarveværket: part of the wider world. (The Modum Blaafarveværk Foundation – Modum Local History Museum. Vikersund. 2000) pp. 92–93
