Norway Unveils Memorial Artwork for 77 Victims of 2011 Attacks

A memorial artwork named Upholding was unveiled on Sunday in Oslo for the 77 people killed in the 22 July 2011 attacks. The structure stands 12 metres high in the renovated government district near the site of the initial car bomb. The artwork consists of a blue steel frame that supports a stone mosaic showing a small wading bird native to Utoeya island, along with straw and sticks reflected in water.

Artist Matias Faldbakken, who observed the bird on the island, designed the piece. The names of all 77 victims are engraved on the memorial. On 22 July 2011, Anders Breivik detonated a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and then shot dead 69 others, mostly teenagers, at a youth camp on Utoeya island.

Hundreds more were injured. Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and government officials attended the unveiling ceremony. Haakon also visited the new 22 July Centre, the national memorial and education centre dedicated to the attacks.

Many of those killed on Utoeya were teenagers from the Norwegian Labour Party's youth wing, the AUF. Breivik, a neo-Nazi, received the maximum sentence of 21 years in 2012, which can be extended if he remains a threat. Breivik partially won a human rights case against Norway in 2016 before the ruling was overturned in 2017.

His 2022 parole bid was denied, and a 2024 lawsuit over isolation claims was unsuccessful.