At the Jaren rest stop along the E18 near Knapstad, a small red house from the 1860s sits inside a modern glass building. It looks odd, and that is the point.
Vangstua was originally a worker's house in old Hobøl municipality. When the road was to be widened, the house was slated for demolition. Artist Marianne Heske stepped in and turned it into an art project. In October 2015, the little house was placed on Eidsvolls plass in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, where 150,000 people came to see it. The contrast between the modest wooden cottage and the grand Parliament building made a point about cultural heritage that no report could match.
In 2020, Vangstua was permanently installed here at Jaren, enclosed in a glass structure that protects it from the weather while keeping it visible from the road. It is a memorial to the thousands of small farmhouses and worker's cottages that have quietly disappeared across Norway as roads, suburbs and commercial developments expanded. The installation is freely accessible and visible from the E18.
Vangstua was originally a worker's house in old Hobøl municipality. When the road was to be widened, the house was slated for demolition. Artist Marianne Heske stepped in and turned it into an art project. In October 2015, the little house was placed on Eidsvolls plass in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, where 150,000 people came to see it. The contrast between the modest wooden cottage and the grand Parliament building made a point about cultural heritage that no report could match.
In 2020, Vangstua was permanently installed here at Jaren, enclosed in a glass structure that protects it from the weather while keeping it visible from the road. It is a memorial to the thousands of small farmhouses and worker's cottages that have quietly disappeared across Norway as roads, suburbs and commercial developments expanded. The installation is freely accessible and visible from the E18.
