Henningsvær: The Kavi Fac Ory and Pøbel

Pøbel at Kavi Fac Ory

The small village Henningsvær on the Lofoten Islands the is becoming a modern cultural engine in Norway. Henningsvær is far north, beyond the arctic circle with beautiful surroundings, short summers with light all day and night and long winters with darkness around the clock. People here have discovered the value of art and how art can inspire and bring energy to a society that have struggled with depopulation, lack of work and educational possibilities. Today, this part of norway experience a revitalisation and a modern art renaissance. Artists have known the area for centuries because of the beautiful nature and the extraordinary light up north, but they just stayed for a season or limited time and the local comunity or visitors didn't get the pleasure of enjoying the art or benefit from the art in any way.

A brand new Gallery, the Kavi Fac Ory, have turned that notion around. The gallery offers contemporary works, works from international artists like Ai Weiwei, Gilbert & George, Shirin Neshat and more. In addition they exhibit contemporary works from norwegian artist like Kjartan Slettemark, Bjarne Melgaard and Pål Vigeland. Street artists like Pøbel and Dolk have also found their way to Kavi Fac Ory. The Kavi Fac Ory has a unique location and offer experiences of art that never previously has been available to the area and rarely are available in such "off-the-grid" regions.

The old Kaviar Factory is an international venue for contemporary art

The rooms inside are light and comfortable

The Kavi Fac Ory has a unique location

Pøbel has changed the conception of street art as an urban phenomenon. The piece "In Cod we trust" is placed by the harbour of Henningsvær

Pøbel, from Stavanger in the south west of Norway, have developed a strong relation to the Lofoten Area and the Kavi Fac Ory. The Kavi Fac Ory is a bold project and I will visit again. When visiting the gallery, the owners were friendly and had a lot of time to talk about the art works, their project and art in general. That never happens in the city :-)

The Fisherman

The iconic painting 'The Fisherman' exists in thousands of norwegian homes and is considered as a norwegian icon, a part of our identity and coastal culture. A culture which now is threatened by the oil industry.

Some research into the background of the painting reveals that this painting has nothing to do with Norway. The painter of the original work was german and the potrayed man was dutch and not a fisherman at the time.

Some people love it and hail it as the best painting ever made, other think of it as kitch and worthless. It's popularity in Norway has never the less made the painting Iconic. "The Fisherman" was painted around 1920 by Harry Haerendel. Harry was born in Hamburg in 1896 and died in 1991. He studied painting in Hamburg and Berlin and travelled all over europe. The portrayed man is Dorus Rijkers, a dutch sea rescuer, a hero of his time. Dorus was honored for saving more than 500 people at sea. When he died at the age of 81, a parade with thousands of people participated in his funeral.

In 2014, Pøbel painted a modern version of "The Fisherman" in Henningsvær, Lofoten. His jacket is replaced with a immersion suite and his rain hat is replaced with a helmet. "The Fisherman 2014" is transformed into an oil worker.

His introvert character and rugged face, smoking tobacco while gazing towards the horizon, is still present, but the oil industry is moving towards the north of Norway and will this be the end of "The Fisherman"? The end of fishing communities and a culture that has fed europe for centuries?  By his work, Pøbel is challenging the the capitalists, the oil industry and the norwegian state on an important decision for the future of northern Norway.

There is a house....

There is a house... in the Lofoten Islands, on Gimsøy (Gims island). Gimsøy is on of the smallest islands in Lofoten, but really beautiful and Hov in the northern part is a perfect spot for watching the midnight sun.

The house has been abandoned for years. Gimsøy, as many areas along the coast of Northern Norway experiences depopulation and today only 206 people lives on the Island.

Dolk and Pøbel have painted abandoned houses in Lofoten for years and by this work, they have raised awareness about depopulation and decay in rural parts of Norway

Work by Pøbel

It's difficult to think of a better scenery than Lofoten. The nature and light is awesome. This house had a pretty anonymous life, left alone to dacay untill the street artists found their way, and today the house is a landmark in the area.

Most of the works of Dolk and Pøbel is gone now, most of them degraded by the of harsch climate of the north. It may look beautiful on a quite summer day with light around the clock, but most of the year it's dark, windy, cold and rainy.

I wonder if people will come back, restore the house and live here again. I don't know, but there are an increasing interest too save and live in these houses, at least part of the year and people from the south of Norway is buying up property in the north as vacation homes.

The work by Pøbel is one of the best preserved street art pieces and one of the few left in Lofoten.

Street Art theft!!

Street art enthusiasts connected to Kunstveggen, along with the local council, got the idea of trying to preserve street art originally made illegal by Dolk and Pøbel around In Bergen city. The council gave 50 000 krones (about 8500 dollars) for the purpose. The result is that officials glued plexiglas on ten street art works.

The idea and protection plan is controversial among street art interests.  A local street art blog, Mot Veggen, argued against the this type of protection for two main reasons. The first reason is that street art is ment to be temporary and second, the protection of certain "valuable" street art works would draw unwanted attention to the works. It seems like the like the blog was right. Few days after the protection plan became public through local media, a work by Dolk, "Grenade Lovers" was stolen from the streets of bergen.

The stolen piece"Grenade Lovers" by Dolk

Now there is just a wooden plate where the Dolk piece where done about 8 years ago outside a pub in Bergen and a part of street art culture is gone. Part of Dolk's talent was/is to pick locations for his works and now the place looks sad and empty.

There is a price of 30 000 krones (about 5100 dollars) to those who can find the work, but local media speculates that the piece may be worth about 200 000 krones (about 34000 dollars). It's no coincidence between the protection plan and the theft. Theft? Well, the owner of the building is unsure. He have not really thought of this work as his belonging. It was made without his permission and is unsure if he can report this to the Police as stolen property. I don't know what the law text says about this, but he got a point. The city have never claimed ownership of the piece either. So, no one really owns this. The thieves have stolen something that don't belong to anyone, but something that belongs to everyone, me included. And I think that the thieves should give it back.

Steel plate placed where the Pøbel work used to be

It's not the first time someone removes street art works from the streets of Bergen. A piece by Pøbel was removed early spring. There are thieves of street art and the sad part is that there probably are buyers.

The stolen Pøbel piece

Summer 2012 Banksy made the work below in North London, later it was stolen, cut out of the wall. The community started to demonstrate, claiming the work back on their street. Later the piece was exhibited in Wynwood, Miami Basel in US for sale on an auction. The street art piece had been stolen by the owners of the wall (the building) in London. The reactions among people in London and US where strong, and the work was withdrawn from the auction. Later, on a private auction in London in June 2013, the work was sold for more than a million pounds. Read a BBC report here.

Image of the Banksy original VIA www.liveauctioneers.com "Slave labor"

In february 2013 I took this photo in London where the original "Slave Labour" work by Banksy where placed

Street art can be an easy target for theft because the works are made in public places for everyone. Unless the artist makes huge works on thick concrete walls! At least, that will make theft really hard.

Pøbel & Østrem: Brothers in Street Art

I don't know if Pøbel & Østrem are two persons or one person. Pøbel is a pseudonym for a Stavanger based street artist mainly doing stencils and Atle Østrem, a previous writer from Stavanger,  is now a street artist and artist doing stencils, graffiti and gallery exhibitions. Both artists have a long history of cooperation, and in this work pøbel did the bear and Østrem did the text. I took the photo in Stavanger (south-west norway) and was made for the Nuart festival in 2010. It's a funny piece, but have a clear reference to climate change. A typical way for street art to make a commentary on a social issue.

I love Stavanger, I lived there for a couple of years, finnishing college. I have a lot of good memories from that period. I sort of started with 'blank sheets' there, got new friends, independence and never looked back. After college I moved on and lived 'here and there' untill I settled in Bergen. Nowadays, I visit Stavanger on a regular basis to teach and usually I walk around in town on my free time. Looking for some new art works in the streets.

Pøbel is doing well and have become known nationally and internationally for his work together with Dolk in the rural area of Lofoten in the north of norway. The summer of 2012, Pøbel went even further north to the small community of Vardø. An area suffering from depopulation. Pøbel organised a street art festival there with internationally known street artists: Komafest. The media response was very good and high quality street art creativity did put the small community of Vardø on the map. The mayor of the community publicly thanked Pøbel for his initiativ. After all, "Pøbel" is a norwegian word for vandal

Together with this post I choose The Specials with "A Message to You Rudy" (Click on the link or the 'play' button below to listen).