Opening of the Bjørnson Exhibition in Bratislava

During King Harald and Queen Sonja's state visit to Slovakia this week,  Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre opened an exhibition featuring Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson who fought for Slovak rights.

Foreign Minster Støre pointed to the fact that at the time of his death, in the spring of 1910, the Norwegian writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was well known in Europe – and, a well known public figure throughout Europe as well, having received the Nobel Prize in Literature seven years earlier.

More importantly, his works had been translated into many languages, including Slovak. He wrote regularly for European newspapers and magazines, travelled and spoke to large gatherings of people and wrote thousands of letters – which today are a treasure trove for historians, translators, writers and readers alike.

Støre said this year’s centenary of Bjørnson’s death provides two important opportunities:

- First, it is a good opportunity to rediscover his books on our own bookshelves and in our libraries, take a fresh look at his plays, poems and novels, and particularly at the issues he wrote about – injustice, corruption, identity, democracy, human rights and the need for peace in Europe.

- Second, it is an opportunity to highlight Bjørnson’s role in a historical context. He was a strong advocate of the rights of small nations (although we all like to think that we belong to great nations).

- As this exhibition shows – in this perfect location, in the very heart of Europe - Bjørnson was well known for his political engagement abroad. Not least for his fight for the rights of minorities. Bjørnson also raised the issue of the rights of the Slovaks to their own language, their own identity. And it is perhaps no coincidence that the opening date of the exhibition is 27 October, to the day 103 years after the Cernova tragedy.

- For Bjørnson, writing and political engagement were two sides of the same coin. His pen was sharp, his tongue provocative and his voice loud. He fought for people who suffered injustice by writing poems, plays, stories and articles about them. His aim was to make Europe aware of these injustices.

- He kept up his mission until the very end, writing his last famous words on his deathbed – quite literally. He had just heard about some factory workers who had risen in defence of some even less fortunate people. Bjørnson wrote: “Good deeds save the world.” A moral exhortation to his contemporaries – and to us. A guidance, a marching order, the Norwegian Foreign Minister said.