Black September

During her years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo (1960–64), Berit Soot Kløvig was taught by Professor Per Palle Storm. Influenced by the anti-authoritarian mood of the 1960s, however, she soon abandoned the framework of her classical training. Her political activism seeped into her works, and inspired by American pop art,she began to experiment by using discarded mass-produced objects in her assemblages.

The sculpture Black September refers directly to the eponymous Palestinian terrorist organization, which gained infamy for capturing and then murdering eleven Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics in Munich in 1972.

A black, fur-lined winter coat covers the charred fundament. The wooden pieces are decorated with various objects. On the left side hangs a small, framed death notice stating the names of the eleven Israelis who were murdered. The assemblage is crowned by a wrought-iron candelabra bearing three candles that have been extinguished. Several of the items are clearly religious in nature.

A songbook has been nailed to the lower part of the sculpture. Moreover, a newspaper item has been glued to one side, and the words FREDSPLANER USA (“peace plans USA”) are written in all caps. The sculpture also includes a picture of Willy Brandt (1913–1992), the West German chancellor at the time of the terror attack. But neither the United States nor the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Brandt managed to achieve any specific results, and the connection between the failed peace negotiations and the innocent victims is as tragic as it is clear.