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The Norwegian Merzbauten
(1937 - 40) I
The Lysaker Merzbau (Haus am Bakken), near Oslo (1937 - 40)
Schwitters produced two further Merzbauten during his time in Norway. After fleeing from Hanover in early 1937, he began work on a new Merzbau in the garden of the apartment he rented in Lysaker, near Oslo that he called the Haus am Bakken, (House on the Slope). This work no longer exists, and virtually all that remains are some plans of the exterior drawn up by Ernst Schwitters. There are no known visual records of its interior, though according to Ernst Schwitters its structure was very similar to that of the Hannover Merzbau.
Schwitters began to make plans for the new Merzbau around July 1937, and started work on the exterior in earnest in the autumn of that year. As there was so little interest in contemporary art in Norway, his idea was to make a portable Merzbau that could eventually be moved to a location where it would be accessible to a more interested public.
The sketches by his son Ernst were made on tracing paper and prepared for the local Planning Department in Oslo in early 1938. The building department first demanded he tear the Merzbau down, then grudgingly granted him official planning permission, then withdrew it once more. Merzbau II survived, however, and by May 1938 Schwitters had started on the interior. He worked intermittently on the upper and lower room of what had become a combined studio/Merzbau until 1939/1940, and it was almost completed when Nazi troops invaded Norway in April 1940. After a perilous flight to the far north, he left Norway for Britain in June 1940, never to return. The Lysaker Merzbau was destroyed by fire in 1951.
Copyright 2011 by LITTORAL. All rights reserved. LITTORAL is a non-profit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change. LITTORAL 42, Lodge Mill Lane, Turn Village, Ramsbottom BL0 0RW, UK. Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1706 827 961 e-mail:Ian@littoral.org.uk.
The Merzbauten / The Lysaker Merzbau
Hanover Merzbau
Lysaker Merzbau
Hjertoya Merzbau
Elterwater Merz Barn