By Johanne Nome 

Can you say something about the five selected projects- and why you chose these? 

These artworks address how we live in the world and what that world looks like in Trondheim. With six artists working with five projects, five countries from across the globe represented, in film, sound, monument, drawing, and performance, happening from 20 minutes in one day to three months, these works symbolize the diversity found within our community. They offer perspectives – ways of seeing – that resonate through the physical landscape of our city but also who we are as a community. They invite the public to participate in art in accessible and different ways.

What do you hope Prosjekt 2021 can facilitate – for the art scene and for residents of Trondheim and those who visit Midtbyen?

I hope that Prosjekt 2021 will encourage a larger public to make culture a regular part of their lives. Trondheim’s cultural community is so rich and diverse, with many institutions and actors contributing to a dedicated and engaged community. It’s something very special that we can really be proud of.

In your perspective- what makes Prosjekt 2021 interesting now, in context of the pandemic?

Temporary public art has the potential to address the quick pace of change in a way that belongs to everyone, especially in times like these. It also addresses the commonalities and intersections of art and research, how different approaches and perspectives in art and science work together to create knowledge and build meaning in our lives.

The pandemic has given rise to strict categories of value, where we have had to learn how to be different in the same spaces. It has put a lot of pressure on connections and highlighted the importance of public spaces as points for contact in our lives. We have had to explore new strategies for developing meaning, reaching out across digital platforms to stay in touch and finding new ways to be, especially new ways that really draw out what is important to us. Creative expression makes us healthy. It contributes to positive coping strategies, helps us empathize across difference, and exercises our creativity. 

The artworks in Prosjekt 2021 extend that invitation even further, to everyone, to participate in culture, to reclaim our presence in our city’s landscape, and to imagine what the future holds.

Why is it exciting to work with art in public spaces in Trondheim?

The reclamation and renegotiation of public space by the people has been addressed in large ways all across the globe. In times of social change, we revert to the foundations of claiming public space through our presence. Public monuments provide a sense of long time. They are symbols and carriers of meaning and value from the past and into the present. Temporary public art has the flexibility to encompass radical shifts of movement in meaning that respond to the social urgencies of the present. 

Public space belongs to everyone and everyone should be represented within it. It is, in essence, a democratic space.

Prosjekt 2021 highlights access – who can go where, why, how and for what – which have been a very difficult negotiation over this past year. It is so important that art be present in our public landscape, giving us and future generations the possibility to express ourselves and be represented in the spaces that are ours.

Which possibilities do you see in Prosjekt 2021 - with cooperation between the municipality, NTNU, the art field in the city? 

I think it’s really interesting to work with living material – the specific sites of the city in which you live. You know them, you have been to them. They form a present part of your everyday life. These spaces can be imagined into new narratives and invite people of different backgrounds, ages, and experiences into dialogue in their city through art.

With Prosjekt 2021, I hope to highlight the importance of communal learning platforms. These spaces can help up to learn from one another, develop competence, and provide a space for dialogue. As two of the largest entities, NTNU and Trondheim kommune have a responsibility for developing opportunities to express ourselves within our city. It’s positive to see different kinds of people find their voice with their support.

What do you see in the art and research – combination? 

Different interests, media and disciplines form interweaving modes of articulation. It’s the combination of these views from diverse angles that contributes to a deeper understanding and expression of how we live. Art and research are both knowledge producers. They just say it in often different ways and are often addressed to different types of audiences. The combination opens up for new languages to emerge and new possibilities with them. 

Why is this project and job interesting for you? / can you say something about your interests/ work / background?

The emergence of public art in global discourse signifies its growing role in how we negotiate the values of our times. My interest in this subject comes from both my background in activism and performative arts practice combined with my specialization in public arts discourse. I’m interested in how structures of power emerge and influence how we live our lives. And I believe that art has tremendous power both to express but also to renegotiate these structures. Public art is a brave practice – it takes courage to take up and claim public space, to be visible and present, and to bear witness to the changes around you. It’s about having a voice, participating actively as a community, and inviting others to be heard as well. 

The way I envisioned Prosjekt 2021 from the beginning was as a collective learning platform. Being an artist myself, all of these connections within my community, what they do, who they are, what they are interested in, gave me a unique position to imagine how these practices form a larger cultural narrative in our region and in these times. I wanted to contribute to local professional artistic production and to encourage artists and administrators to think about public space as an emerging arena for contemporary art that engages in the everyday life of people in our communities. I wanted to invite new audiences to explore culture, to find it in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. After all, to take risks is to invite in the unknown, it is the possibility of something new and exciting. 

It is important to work with uncertainty, to invite new voices to the table, and to break from what we know. With good foundational support, this project aims to create connections between all us in familiar places and in new ways. It encourages us to play an active role in how our cities are built and how they are used. Art is a language that gives many of these ideas and thoughts expression in different forms and through different perspectives. And here is it very visible. By no means was this the intention – to check the boxes of different backgrounds, disciplines or materials. But the rich diversity and critical perspectives, ways of working, approaches and voices came to reflect what I find the most interesting and special part of Trondheim.