About

Papaver is a book and photo project based on the former institution Toftes Gave, on Helgøya in Ringsaker municipality. Toftes Gave was a boys’ home that was built on the Sund farm in 1875, and was Norway’s first public child welfare institution.

Most of the buildings still stand there, and for five months Marit Arnekleiv rented two rooms in the main building to investigate what these rooms have to say, what it is like to be there and what an art project can add to our reading of the history of the place.

Eivind Hofstad Evjemo’s texts enter into dialogue with Arnekleiv’s images, and evoke different voices of those who lived and were connected to Toftes Gave at different times. Text and images form a continuous flow and movement in the book, and open up space for other forms of empathy and presence in this history.

In a concluding essay by Hans-Jørgen Wallin Weihe, we gain insight into the history of this type of institution from a national and international perspective, and how they point towards the care institutions of our time.

Marit Arnekleiv – Photo

Eivind Hofstad Evjemo – short prose

Hans-Jørgen Wallin Weihe – essay

Marte Meling Enoksen – design

Price: 350,- NOK

Soft cover

Pages: 236

ISBN: 978-82-690497-8-7

Edition: 350

Norwegian/English

All photos: Marte Meling Enoksen