Y-blokka

Y-blokka by Katja Høst is a set of 24 black-and-white postcards, a publication and a poster depicting the iconic modernist building, the Y-block, which formed part of the Norwegian government quarter for over fifty years. [New in October 2019- Completed 2021]
Date18 Oct 201931 May 2021
Venue50 places around Oslo
ParticipantsKatja Høst

Information

The postcards show the building scarred by the bombings, addressing the lack of historical awareness in cultural policies allowing the forthcoming demolition of this major monument to the Norwegian welfare state. The postcards will be distributed for free across the city.

Click here to read more about the artist, and more information about Katja Høst's project for oB1 further down this page.

The "Y-block" has now been published in book form on Orfeus Publishing

The book also contains four essays discussing the architecture, the art, and the historical backdrop for this iconic building. The book contains texts in Norwegian and English. The publication was released in November 2020 and is now available at a range of bookstores.

The book is published by Orfeus Publishing with financial support from Fritt Ord, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Oslobiennalen, Bergesenstiftelsen

Foreword: Tone Hansen
Contributors: Jan Digerud, Kjetil A. Jakobsen, Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, Line Ulekleiv

Click here to visit the publisher Orfeus' webpage.

Y-blokka 

What decides whether a building is worth protecting? Katja Høst’s project for osloBIENNALEN is a series of postcards portraying a building before it was demolished in late 2020 in the Government Quarter: the ‘Y-block’. Over the past few years, debate has raged as to whether the block, designed by Erling Viksjø with decorations by Carl Nesjar and Picasso, was to be torn down or preserved. According to the arguments in favour of demolition, the Y-block is difficult to protect against fresh terror attacks; it is ‘grim’ and ‘brutal,’ and does not meet today’s utilitarian needs. But even before the terror attack, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage argued that the block should be protected. The arguments in favour of preserving the building declare it a rare example of the Brutalist style of architecture, and a unique monument to the age of Social Democracy. Although Høst’s photographs of the block show traces of the terror attack in 2011, it is not the bombing that is her main subject. Equally, she wishes to raise questions about the meaning of collective memory, and how it is perpetuated.

Y-blokka. Courtesy of the artist.


In earlier work, Høst has portrayed among other things the Folketeater building in Oslo, where the Opera was housed for decades before it moved to Bjørvika in 2008. Both the Folketeater building and the Y-block are examples of Social Democrat institutional building in the modernist style. Such buildings often involved the demolition of city neighbourhoods. Some people still read the buildings as examples of violence against an earlier era. Others see buildings which have now aged and acquired historical and cultural value.
The answer is here – in the cards.

Postcard rack with cards at the National Museum of Architecture. Photo by Asle Olsen

The work is available at various institutions; museums, galleries, libraries, schools for higher education, government agencies, health institutions and other enterprises across the city.

Sites for postcards include:

osloBIENNALEN's information centre
Kunstnernes Hus
Munch Museum
Fotogalleriet
Litteraturhuset
Aars
Grev Wedelsplass Auksjoner
Rommen kultursenter
Doga
Oslo National Academy of the Arts
National Library
Deichman public library - Hovedbibliotek
Deichman public library - Majorstuen
University of Oslo, the HF-library
NVE-library
Department of Urban Development
Ark bookshop (National Museum)
VEGA Scene
Visit Oslo tourist information Østbanehallen
Kvinnesenteret
Barnesenteret
Kreftsenteret, vestibyle
Øye, poliklinikk
Glass gaten
Cafe Årstidene, Gaustad
Hydro Bygdøy Alle 2
Quality Hotel 33

osloBIENNALENFIRST EDITION
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