A contemporary art project running across Oslo—entitled Oslo Pilot—could be a forerunner for a permanent art festival in the Norwegian capital, said the organisers of the initiative at a briefing yesterday (26 January) at the residence of the Norwegian ambassador in London.
Oslo Pilot, a two-year project, which began last year, explores the “intersecting temporalities of the artwork, the periodic art event and the public sphere”, says a project statement. Asked whether Oslo Pilot will lead to a biennial, a project spokesman says: “They are looking at new models for the future event and will make a proposal at the end of the pilot project.”
The curators Eva González-Sancho and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk unveiled the 2016 programme, which includes a photographic survey called City of Dislocation-Part 1: Consolidate or Die on show at the project space, Oslo Pilot Project Room (until 18 March).
The exhibition—co-organised by the architects Johanne Borthne and Vilhelm Christensen, the curator and writer Martin Braathen and the architectural historian Even Smith Wergeland—focuses on historical buildings in Oslo “facing abandonment”, say the organisers. These include the Deichmanske Library, Norway’s largest public library located in the city centre, which is scheduled to open in a new building near the waterfront Opera House by 2020.
Other events planned this year include an exhibition in the summer of new sculptures by the veteran Norwegian artist Siri Anker Aurdal, which will be dotted around Vigeland Park. The main sponsor of Oslo Pilot is the City of Oslo’s cultural body, Agency for Cultural Affairs.