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ONE FINE DAY, ALL THIS WILL BE YOURS
Dellbrügge & de Moll
Intervention in Public Space, Bjørvika, Oslo, on the sites for the planned commons
‘If someone gave you the promise: “One fine day, all this will be yours”, would you trust it? Or would you insist on getting it black on white? On the future grounds of the newly developed district of Bjørvika in Oslo’s harbor area the city gave a promise. It’s the promise of free access to public space and communality connoted in the term allmenning (common lands). Seven areas, drafted as seven fingers of an outreaching hand, are designated as common lands. But it is not its label but its use which will decide upon space.’
ONE FINE DAY, ALL THIS WILL BE YOURS is part of the exhibition project
COMMON LANDS – Allmannaretten wich runs from May 12th, 2009 – March 12, 2010. It is taking place in the designated public spaces of Bjørvika, the former harbor of Oslo, Norway, which is currently under transition to become a new part of the city by the fjord. www.commonlands.net
The development of waterfronts is a current trend in post-industrial cities where industrial harbor areas are being transformed into new urban spaces that emphasize mercantile, residential and recreational purposes. The curators Åse Løvgren and Karolin Tampere of the exhibition project Common Lands uses the process of redevelopment around Bjørvika in Oslo to highlight a number of issues associated with urban development, democracy, access and the distribution of power. The project is in process following this specific development and relates it to other urban developments around the world.
The artist duos Bik van Der Pol, Dellbrügge & de Moll, Geir Tore Holm and Søssa Jørgensen are commissioned to develop art works taking the transformation of the area as a starting point.
In addition to the art projects, Common Lands contains of a series of seminars and workshops, accompanied by online readers, sharing the investigations of the development. The readers aim to follow Common Lands on a parallel track and put focus on important aspects of the development, along the process. The discursive program and the readers will together with the art projects investigate, comment on and intervene in this extensive urban redevelopment
Common Lands asks the question for whom is the new part of Oslo developed for? The title also points to art as a potential and political site for critical reflection concerning the public sphere both as concept and site.
Art as Protagonist?
What were the desires of the commissioners, Bjørvika Development Ltd, when they included a program for art and to what degree could Common Lands create an independent space to maneuver within such a commission? A workshop held at Sparwasser HQ during July 2008 was a platform for discussions around the role cultural producers, artists and the works of art can have in a development such as Bjørvika.
Art as Protagonist? is an online publication with contributions from Michael Baers, Heidi Bergsli, Markus Degerman, Anne Beate Hovind, Åse Løvgren and Karolin Tampere.
The publication is available from www.commonlands.net.
The project is part of the overall plan for art in public space, initiated by Bjørvika Utvikling AS
Common Lands are supported by The City of Oslo, Agency for Planning and Building Services (City of Oslo), Nordic Black Theatre, MS Innvik.
