Some Oslo Streetart

Oslo, Norway - Osloman20plus - Sunday, November 12th, 2006 : goo

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Oslo, streetart, graffiti

Ok I found a series of streetart pictures from Oslo, and I felt I needed to post them to get a little variation from the few other posts on Oslo available here.. Oslo actually deserves a little more pictures than what is here right now.

Here's the pictures, note, they were NOT shot by me, look to bottom for more info...

1st image shows a building in the area where all these pictures where taken, which is around the well known "city river" of Oslo, by the name of Akerselva. Akerselva is a rather small and intimate river, but still had importance for the beginnings of norwegian industrialization from around the 1850's onwards.

This street-art is centered around the small pedestrian streets and alleys around the club "Blå," which translates to blue. Picture on the right is in the yard of the club, which has outdoor serving in the summer. On the right, Akerselva (Akers river) flows by.

On the left pic, you can make out the rather funny outdoor chandelier. This area is much more heavily adorned with streetart and other "random" art inventions than most other parts of Oslo. In the beginning, this attracted the people who saw themselves as special, and probably some "radical" types too - but now, it's more of a trendy spot, than anything else, and consequently, the "freaks" have "left the building" for greener pastures (mostly) :).

On the right, you see a plate (the blue one) which reflects the industrial past of this area. There is little in the way of industry left, but apart from "Blå" the club, there is a concert venue close by called "Fabrikken" - the factory. Most of the old buildings still stand, but the uses have changed.

Oslo used to have a lively graff subculture, which still has a certain strength, but the popularity of it has died down somewhat - in the early/mid-nineties, Oslo could be ranked among some of the most heavily "tagged" down cities in Europe(at least considering its size)! But this is no longer the case. It still hosts a few class writers/graffers, and about "one hands worth" of world class or near-world-class graffers. On the right, you can see the name of the alleyway, which is "Ingens gate" - this translates to "nobodys street."

The image with part of the Akerselva river, above, shows a small part of the alternative culture house, called "Hausmania." Band practice rooms and other activities abound there. They sort-of fight with the city authorities for their continued existance, as it is a kind of counter-culture "base" so to speak (and the buildings are rather shabby).

The street-art "inventive/pun" part of graffiti was long neglected here, but in recent years, our taggers and graffers have picked up on this trend.

The plaque says, loosely translated: this wall is temporarily suspended as a "location" for photos of ministries of culture/culture workers/personalities etcetera. - - Institute Against Visual Simplification (IBVT). It is a sort of joke, of course, and a result of exactly what it opposes - "establishment" people taking these visuals as their own to make them "contemporary" or something like that...

These pictures were all from flickr, and specifically, www.flickr.com/photos/cicilie/cicilief. The actual gallery for these pictures can be found www.flickr.com/photos/cicilie/sets/72157594370493178/ here

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chiamattt: Thanks. These were awesome.

colavitos ghost: holy fuck. amazing. i'm going to oslo.

Tyler: Nice.... Really funny bombs

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