Every design for Vestfossen

Vestfossen is the old mill village on the Vestfosselva that now calls itself 'the capital of culture'. Its industry goes back to the 1500s, when Fossesholm became the centre of a large sawmill estate; in the eighteenth century Jørgen von Cappelen gave the manor its rococo buildings, and the Swedish painter Eric Gustav Tunmarck decorated the walls inside.

What makes Vestfossen unusual is how completely it has changed its skin. For most of a century it was a factory place, home to the Vestfos Cellulose Factory and the Fredfos Wool Factory. When they closed around 1970, the buildings stood empty for years. Then, after 2000, artists moved in. The Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, founded by Morten Viskum, has brought work by Louise Bourgeois, Anselm Kiefer, Cindy Sherman and Harald Sohlberg to a former factory village in Buskerud, and the Uldlageret workshops keep artists working on site.

If you grew up here, the map is the river splitting the village into Foss-siden and Sems-siden, the falls by the power station, and the manor up the road.