Steinar Laumann about the project:

 

"I go for a walk with the cow (2017)

Performance
Completed: 2017
Material: Grålin the cow, Sølvi the calf, sound and radio broadcasting equipment, website, Facebook page
 

I go a trip with the cow (2017) was an 80-day journey with the fjord cow Grålin and her calf Sølvi. We followed the old drift routes from Skjåk to Valdres via Jostedal and Lærdal. The project was disseminated, among other things, via a website and a Facebook page called Go for a walk with the cow. The homepage contains sound from the trip recorded using microphones on the cow's head and a GPS plot, which enabled the audience to follow where we were and possibly come and walk with us for a bit.

Historical context

Until the 1920s, large herds of livestock were driven from the fjord areas in the west to the cities in Eastern Norway by the Norwegian cowboys - the drifters. These guys were often farmers' sons with no odel, who traded and moved large quantities of livestock over long distances. Being a drifter was like a lifestyle of its own, with long periods on the move. But as the road network and the railway were improved from the end of the 19th century, the lorry and not least the train took over, and the large operations slowly but surely disappeared from the Norwegian road picture."