Velferden – Art arena in a historic mining landscape

Velferden Sokndals Scene for Samtidskunst er en arena for tverrfaglig undersøkelse av menneskets forhold til naturen med utgangspunkt i bergverkshistorien i Sokndal. Velferden huser kunstnere og fagfolk fra hele verden på arbeidsopphold i kortere og lengre perioder – og arrangerer utstillinger, konserter, kurs og seminarer for offentligheten.

The welfare is located in the mining company Titania's old mine at Sandbekk, where in 1916 they invented how to convert the black iron ore Ilmenite into the white pigment Titanium Dioxide. The discovery has helped to color the modern world white, and the cultural environment at Sandbekk bears witness to an important period in international mining history.

Welfare disposes of welfare buildings, office buildings and carpentry workshops. In addition, the building environment at Sandbekk consists of a Mechanical Workshop, Compressor House, Locomotive Stall, Laboratory and various warehouse buildings. The plant is surrounded by a unique post-industrial landscape from over 100 years of mining.

Hiking

There are several opportunities for exciting trips in the landscape around Sandbekk. The sand dump is a very special experience and is easily accessible from Velferden. Here you can go exploring in the desert-like formations, in the planted forest on top of the landfill, and follow the tracks of Sandbekk's old cable car. You can also walk further through the landfill, over Knudknuten to the next valley and up the old ore railway to the Blåfjell mines where they mined iron ore at the end of the 19th century.

Geologi og kulturhistorie

The geology and cultural history of the area are closely linked. The operation of the quarry at Sandbekk was motivated by the Storgangen, a 4 km long and up to 50 m wide corridor-shaped noritic ore body in the Åna-Sira anorthosite massif. The mineral in the ore is ilmenite and it is from this that titanium dioxide (TiO2) is extracted. As a pigment, titanium white is used in most of the white products we see in the world today. Storgangen was operated by Titania from 1916 to 1964 and 10 million tonnes of ore with an average of 18-19% TiO2 was mined. This corresponds to 11-13% of the world production of ilmenite in the same period.

Access

Følg Mydlandsveien 4242 av Fylkesvei 44 og ta av hvor det er skiltet til Sandbekk. Det er gode muligheter for å parkere på området og parkeringen er gratis. Nærmeste busstasjon er Hauge i Dalane, herfra kan man gå en fin tur på 45 minutter opp til Sandbekk langs elva.