For our final project at WSA last year we had a book project. I based the content of my book on photographs of an old brewery in my home town Stavanger in Norway. It was shut down years ago and is now being used as an contemporary art space as well as a café and bar. The old building also hosts cultural events such as music festivals. The brewery was closed down by Ringnes (the largest brewery in Norway) in 2007. This came as a shock for many people, especially the workers, as Tou brewery had been the most profitable brewery in Ringnes that year. Many of the 107 workers who lost their job were unskilled people in their 40's who had little chance of getting new jobs in the area. Many nightclubs in Stavanger threatened to boycott Ringnes, but despite all of this the brewery was closed down.
I have included photographs of what the building looks like today, but also objects that I discovered around the old brewery. Some of the objects might have belonged to the workers, like an old shoe that I found, but I think most of the things are rubbish that people have dumped there. The text I have included in the book is in Norwegian, and the sentences are taken from old newspaper articles about the case.
The book isn't perfect, but I really enjoyed the process of making it and I can see myself making more handmade books in the future.
If you would like to see the rest of the photos I took at the brewery they are on my flickr page:
