Oslo 2014-2019

For osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION, Oliver Godow produces a series of billboard posters and a publication depicting scenes of the last five years’ intensive reconstruction and development of Oslo, one of Europe’s fastest growing capitals. Oliver Godow’s Oslo 2014–2019 is a book and a billboard project depicting scenes of the urban development the City of Oslo has been – and still is – undergoing. The images reflect a fascination with the way unregulated urban environments and spaces provide a rich and fertile ground for intervention by their users.

Click here to read more about the artist Oliver Godow.

Is it possible to capture rapid change? In 2014, the photo artist Oliver Godow decided to create a portrait of Oslo in transformation. He travelled repeatedly to the city, taking close-ups of changes to the city as they happened. We have all noticed how the city has undergone rapid change over the past decade or so. The city has been crammed with demolition sites and containers, building sites and cranes, scaffolding, tarpaulins and stacks of building materials. A rapidly redeveloping city has a distinctive aesthetic visible in tiny leftovers and traces marking the urban fabric. One day they are there, the next they are gone. Without Godow’s insight and camera, these changes might pass us by altogether.

osloBIENNALEN showed some of Godow’s photographs on billboards in the centre of Majorstua in 2019, while the publisher Hatje Cantz, in collaboration with the Biennial, published an artist publication of the full set of images along with specially written texts. Small details will be blown up to a gigantic format in public space, while within the book format transitory moments will be recorded forever.