The exhibition Valmueslekten is based on photographic material from the former orphanage institution Toftes Gave on Helgøya in Mjøsa. The work emerges from Marit Arnekleiv’s residency in the remaining buildings, and is presented both as individual photographs and as a spatial installation. The installation is developed in collaboration with Marte Meling Enoksen, who designed the book Valmueslekten, published in 2025.

As the country’s first child welfare institution, Toftes Gave shares many similarities with the establishment of Dikemark Psychiatric Hospital around the same period, as well as with the visions that shaped institutional practices of the time. This historical parallel adds an extra dimension to the project, as it is now being presented at Dikemark.