Reclaiming the Path: Kjærlighetsstien and the Course of History
摘要
A distinctive part of the topography of Utøya, “Kjærlighetsstien” is both literally and metaphorically associated with human connectivity, and holds a central place in anecdotes and histories of gatherings at the island. When the atrocities in 2011 transformed the path into a site of massacre, it disrupted this image, threatening to replace it with one of horror and brutality. Drawing on observations and reflections from the author's visit to Utøya in the autumn of 2023, as well as press coverage of Kjærlighetsstien from the 1960s onwards, this chapter engages with Kjærlighetsstien as “medium” (W.J.T. Mitchell) and "multidirectional space" (Mechtild Widrich), analysing how the trail, now part of the infrastructure of the reopened island, negotiates not only contrastive, but even mutually exclusive meanings and values.