Slow Days concluded with discussions on the nature of commissioning and curating within a public realm and a summary session with key stakeholders for the Bjorvika development.

Slow Days Oslo final summary session

“Slow can be considered as an appeal for mindfulness, rather than ‘less speed’. Slow isn’t really about ‘time’. It is about the depth of thought and action, bringing ones complete attention to the moment, as opposed to a notion of ‘slow’, taking ‘a long time’ in what you are doing.” Mary Jane Jacob

“There is both the experience of commissioning but also the experience of public space – in that context what does slow mean? Could a productive, collective public space be a slow space?” Claire Doherty

“The project has huge potential which is not like other public art or development programme. We have tried the leisure approach and, generally speaking, it has not worked. We need to think of Bjorvika as part of a much broader social ecology… In terms of slowness, this is about how we manage energy in a system. Bjorvika is like a growing organ within the city. Art is about improving and enhancing what is already there.” Alistair Hudson

No powerpoint in the forest!

Katie Paterson spoke of constellations of remarkable ideas – the black firework, the moonlight bulb, the atom in the grain of sand – against a skyline of trees leading down to the city

Heather and Ivan Morison took us back to the origins of ideas and spoke of the forest as a site of imagination and of work - the sheer physical labour of making a remarkable intervention often collaboratively – and of the need for tenacity in a creative process. They took us from Birmingham to Bergen, from Wellington to Bristol and back to Oslo.

On the walk down to the city, we came across forest under threat of ‘redevelopment’, playing fields and camping areas – sites of civilised leisure, restaurants and lakes, but nowhere did we encounter a recognisable site of production. One of us asked whether sites of production have become embarrasing in our cities, now hidden beneath our plazas and our cleaned up green spaces.

We then encounterd a public space still reeling from the blast of the bomb on 22nd July. Boarded up windows and cranes testified to the destruction here, but it was perhaps our host at the Deichmanske Bibliotek who had the biggest impact on us. He had opened the libary room for us, despite extensive bomb damage to the entrance, and describe with a simple hand to his chest the sheer long-lasting mental trauma of the blast on library staff. It was his words at the end of our session that drew the loudest applause – that the new library in Bjorvika to be opened in 2017 had to be a place to gather – an anchor of sorts.

Alistair Hudson spoke of Grizedale Arts commiment to questioning the visiting and the visited in a place formed through rural tourism. The landscape, however, to be worked with was not the environmental or topographical landscape, but the landscape of social networks, of assumptions and personal histories, of forgotten skills and reclaimed public spaces.

Marianne Heier questioned the branding of Oslo as the Fjord City and to whom the Fjord City is addressed. Her gift of water, earth and a stone from Bjorvika emphasised our need to revise the notion that Bjorvika is a blank canvas on which can be projected a vision of the Fjord City’s waterfront. Rather it is part of the ecology of the city.

Tomorrow we leave by not so slow boat to an island…

The first of our Slow Days in Oslo drew to a close this evening here at Etterstad Kolonihager (allotment gardens), who not only hosted an incredible meal – but even raided their gardens for salad when the final ingredients didn’t show up! Gathered round the tables of this rarefied setting and surrounded by the overlooking apartments, we reflected on an afternoon of debates and discussions.

Artist Amy Franceschini and curator Mary Jane Jacob led those discussions in the yard of the Community House over a few hours, relating stories of their experiences in San Francisco, Charleston and the Phillips Community respectively. These places seemed a world away from the streets of Oslo, and yet it was notable how many of the challenges faced by both artist and curator resonated with the challenges in Bjorvika.

These are just some of the remarks, ideas and questions which have been paraphrased for brevity.

MJJ: Ideas should be allowed to rise up and then fall away, until the idea which seems to meet the conditions of a particular context occurs.

Amy: Victory Gardens arose out of the specific conditions of San Francisco – it couldn’t simply be repeated elsewhere. There is a danger that such successful projects can be assimilated and used for political gain.

MJJ: I’m seeking art which is effective. This doesn’t mean that art which is not ‘effective’ is not valid – simply that it is not my main concern.

Audience member: But what of the artistic gesture which is ‘ineffective’ or not exactly functional?

Michael Prior: Perhaps there is a middle ground – for the remarkable work to offer a spark of interest which leads to unplanned ‘effects’ e.g. the Black Cloud – Heather and Ivan Morison.

Alistair Hudson: Perhaps we should be considering what the art in Bjovika could do for the city, rather than attempting to use it to bring the city to Bjorvika.

Tomorrow… the forest!

A new addition to our Reader. Check out Boel Christensen-Scheel on ecology as a relational principle. Article “in press” in In Formation – Nordic Journal of Art and Research, Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus.

Slow Days Full Programme

Slow Days map

Places are going fast, so book up now.

Claire Doherty

Carl Honore’s essentials of Slow (click to link to webpage)

Marianne Heier A Frame Around Reality (PDF)
An artist’s response to Bjorvika and redevelopment

Alistair Hudson (click to link to webpage)
The John Ruskin Memorial Blog – see in particular Alistair’s postings about the Terminal Convention and response from John Byrne.

Mary Jane Jacob’s introduction In the Space of Art_Buddha Mind (PDF)
Click here also for access to Mary Jane’s extensive writings on public art.

Amy Franceschini, Click here to read more about Victory Gardens.
“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Anthem
by Leonard Cohen

Claire Doherty and Paul O’Neill, Introduction to Locating the Producers: Durational Approaches to Public Art (PDF)

Heather and Ivan Morison Frost King story (PDF)

The Ethic-Aesthetic Way of Wonders Boel Christensen-Scheel on Art and Ecology (PDF)

Our confirmed participants currently include:

Carl Honoré (author of In Praise of Slow), artists Amy Franceschini, Katie Paterson, Heather and Ivan Morison, curators Will Bradley, Claire Doherty, Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, Alistair Hudson, Mary Jane Jacob and Michael Prior.

Places will be strictly limited, so booking is strongly advised and tickets go on sale in ten days. For further information email info@bjorvikautvikling.no