Y-Blokka must be preserved

osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019–2024 opened in May 2019, inviting some 24 artists to develop artworks for public space in Oslo. Seven chose to address in some way the iconic modernist building, Y-Blokka, which together with The Highrise formed Norway’s government quarter in the city centre. Since July 22, 2011, the buildings have been empty, a physical reminder of the terrorist attack that tore through the quarter, killing eight people and damaging the buildings. The government’s subsequent decision to demolish Y-Blokka has led to massive protest in Norway and abroad.

Norwegian artists Katja Høst and Alexander Rishaug, Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg, French artist Carole Douillard, Brazilian artists Bruno Oliveira and Monic Nador, and American artist Gaylen Gerber each proposed works that would raise questions about the meaning of collective memory and how it is perpetuated. Five of these works, Høst’s Y-Blokka, Rishaug’s Y (59 ° 54'54.76 ″ N 10 ° 44′46.03 ″ Ø), Dahlberg’s Notes on a Memorial, Douillard’s The Viewers, and Oliveira and Nador's Another Grammar for Oslo, explore different aspects of the site’s significance (Gerber’s proposal to include Y-Blokka in his Supports series was rejected by the buildings’ owner).

It is only natural that the threat of demolishing such a significant cultural heritage site and its integrated art pieces attracts attention from artists invited to reflect on public art in Oslo. It also coincides with the biennial’s wish to reflect on public ownership, artist collaboration, local production, as well as the curators interest in addressing the institutional support of art in public space, outside of art collections.

The government quarter was conceived as an architectural whole by architect Erling Viksjø and is a key work of Norwegian modernist architecture. The buildings feature several murals, a rare collaboration between artists Carl Nesjar and Pablo Picasso, and considered an epitome of public art. The only other building in the world to feature works by Picasso and Nesjar that are accessible in public space is in Barcelona via a series of sand-cast friezes around the façade of the Architects' Association of Catalonia.

In the aftermath of the attack in 2011, both Y-Blokka and The Highrise remain structurally sound and the murals are, surprisingly, still intact. Nevertheless, in May 2014, the Norwegian government announced that while The Highrise would be restored, Y-Blokka would be demolished. Prior to July 2011, the Directorate of Cultural Heritage had proposed both should be preserved.

Although some may consider Y-Blokka as difficult to protect against fresh terror attacks, as “grim” and “brutal”, as not meeting today’s utilitarian needs, we believe it offers a rare example of the Brutalist style of architecture and a unique monument to the age of Social Democracy. For its architectonic and symbolic value, Y-Blokka should be preserved intact.

As artist Katja Høst so poignantly notes: “By destroying this building, the government fulfils the goal of the right-wing extremist terrorist.”

Eva Gonzalez-Sancho Bodero
Curator

Per-Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk
Curator

Ole G. Slyngstadli
Executive Director