The smelting plant

The tag says: 'takk for oss' a norwegian expression for 'good bye from all of us'!

Its about ten years now, since the last workers left the smelting plant in Odda, Norway. The abandoned buildings still stands and reminds us about a tough industrial reality made of concrete and iron. For about hundred years this plant was the cornerstone of a society deep inside the Hardangerfjord, surrounded by high mountains blocking the sunlight.

Destiny, I think, gives me a special relationship with Odda. I've never lived there, but stayed there several times and I think the place is fascinating. The abandoned smelting plant in the middle of town looks like an ancient dark throne of evil forces.

Inside, a carpet of grey sand and dust (probably a mixture of chalk and coal) makes the buildings look like you have entered a colourless post apocalyptic site with dead materials and no life.

   
Once, these buildings where filled with men, dirty and strong men, sweating over melted carbide pouring out of glowing owens. Now, it's cold and hard.

It seems odd to build an industrial smelting plant in Odda, the middle of nowhere, far away from practically everything. In addition there were no lime stone in the area, or coal, the main ingredients in calsium carbide. They shipped the the raw materials to Odda in tankers on the fjord.

In the beginning of the 20th century the reason was an unlimited source of cheap power produced by waterfalls. Calsium Carbide is produced by heating a lime and carbon mixture up to about 2100 degrees celcius. In 1906 the plant in Odda was the biggest Calsium Carbide plant in the world.



Vis større kart

5 pointz is gone, rest in power!

Photo: C.S. Muncy, The Village Voice

5 Pointz street art and graffiti was buffed over by white paint the night of 19 November 2013, without warning to artists and it came as a shock to fans of street art all over the world. The dispute about 5 pointz and the future have been going on for years, but now it seems to be over. The biggest outdoor street art gallery in the world is gone and the huge property and buildings in Long Island City (Queens) is now getting ready for demolition. New stores and luxury condos will be raised. The owner Jerry Wolkoff defended the overnightdestruction in interviews and told that "I know they're upset but it's over with. I can imagine going one piece, one piece, and then going through hell and torture to everybody," He said, and told further: "So I said, 'Let me do it one time, and end this torture one time'" The street art community is upset and called it an act of cruelty. More than 1500 pieces of street art and graffiti works was wiped out over night. I visited 5 pointz in september 2013. I took line 7 from grand central towards Queens and right after crossing east river an amazing view hit my eyes. There it was, the legendary 5 pointz.

5 pointz 19 of september 2013 (photo: o. m. eyra)

Below is how it looked like the the 19th of november 2013. The paintover was really sad news and the media photos showing the white walls were heart breaking.

Photo Wall Street Journal

 I am really happy that I got to see the art works before they dissapeared. Lets go a couple of months back and below is some of my photos from september 2013:

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Toofly photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

 Work by Esteban Del Valle, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Jimmy C,  photo o.m.eyra

Works by Dis_Satisfied and Adub, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Dase (morc alvarez) photo o.m.eyra

Work by Onur Dinc, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Shiro, photo o.m.eyra

And there were so much more........Click on this link to see more of my instagram photos from 5 pointz online.

Artists have been painting on the property since the early 1990s, with permission from the Wolkoffs. In 2010,  the owners decided to demolish the building. Since then, Jonathan Cohen, also known as Meres One, and fellow curator Marie Cecile Flageul have been fighting a battle to save 5 pointz. 5 Pointz launched a lawsuit against the Wolkoffs, but the federal district court ruled in favour of the Wolkoffs and the decision to paint over the murals came just after Banksy held a month-long New York residency in October, which ended with him writing a brief comment on his website to "Save 5 Pointz."

M-city in control

M-city makes big stencil works and I guess he likes Norway. I've enjoyed his street art works in Bergen, Oslo and Stavanger. This year he painted the control tower at Stavanger Airport. What could be cooler? Well, he had permission and took it. I love the work.

M-city is Mariusz Waraz from Gdansk in Poland and have been a street artist for 18 years. His stencils are inspired by machinery, engines, industrial equipment, derelict factories and abandoned spaces. When he is not painting huge murals, he teach graphics at Gdansk's Academy of Fine Arts.

To vreate the the mural on the control tower he used 6 days in his studio,  created the image on the computer and cut out 51 stencil pieces. Then he took the rolls to Norway. It took him another 6 days to paint the 28 m high tower. The result is impressive.

The art work is beautiful and fits really well in the airport environment. The personell must be proud of their new tower and work place.  I wish that M-city could come back every year.

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.

Queueing for three hours (Tour Paris 13)

Last day in Paris. After a lazy morning, I arrived at Tour Paris 13. Tour Paris 13 is an abandoned apartment block in Paris 13th district by the river Seine. At arrival I saw the big crowd outside the building queueing for entrance. It's a grey and cold Sunday in October and I find my place in the queue.

Tour Paris 13 on the quai d'Austerlitz. Calligraffiti by eL Seed

Tour Paris 13 is an unique exhibition for street art. About hundred international artists have used seven months to paint the building and apartments inside. 4500 square meeters over 9 floors. I would really like to see this.

piece by Tore

The queue moved really slowly and I got to know that they only let 45 people inside at the time. After 1 hour I had just moved some meters.

Dan23 portrait and Elseed Calligraffiti

The organisers believes it is the largest temporary street art and graffiti project of its kind and open for one month, October 2013. The building is planned to be demolished by the end of the year, but there are still people who refuse to move out. After two hours in line, I was starting to loose hope. Two hours to closing time and people around was restless. We began to think that this would not go. Some left, but I decided to stay for a while more. This was my last opportunity to see this during my visit to Paris this time.

After three hours it was beginning to get dark and it began to rain. A security person came by and told that we would not be able to enter before closing time. We were wet, cold and hungry and I realized that I would never see this exhibition inside. I was really disapointed. Can't be lucky every time. I had a good time in the line and learned something important: The project and street art is way more popular than I had anticipated, and I have to plan more carefully around this next time.

Mona Lisa by Inti

Relaxing on fron of a piece by Kazar

Raiden by STeW

After a while the crowd dissolved and many went dissapointed home that evening. I got a feeling of the project at least and took photos of the works outside.

The Control Tower (Nuart 2013 outside)

The best thing about Nuart is the outside works around the city of Stavanger.  Brilliant stuff is made around in town. The surprise this year, was the M-city work on the control tower at Stavanger airport (Sola).

Roa Nuart 2013

The line-up this year:
DAL EAST (CN), ROA (BE), M-CITY (PL), FAITH47 (ZA), HUSH (UK), VHILS (PT), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), C215 (FR), DOT DOT DOT (NO), DOTMASTER (UK), STRØK (NO), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), DAVID CHOE (US) AIKO (JP).

C215 - Christian Guemy (self portrait) Nuart 2013

Martha Cooper from US was specially invited. She's been photographing Graffiti and Street Art since the 70's. Street Art artists and enthusiasts all over the world owe her a lot for her journalism and photos.  

Hush Nuart 2013

AIKO Nuart 2013

Dotmasters Nuart 2013

The state of stencil and stensil art was a theme on the festival this year and three norwegian stencil artists: Strøk, DotDotDot and Martin Whatson presented their works.

Strøk Nuart 2013

Martin Whatson Nuart 2013

DotDotDot Nuart 2013

Stencils plays an important part in the street art movement and is made in different styles and degrees of complexity. However, it's not the complexity that makes the street artist good. Drawing skills is an advantage, but I think it's the idea, the expression and placement that matters. The works by Strøk was fresh and interesting.

Vhils Nuart 2013

Ernest Zacharevic Nuart 2013

This year I was impressed by Ernest Zacharevic's works both inside and outside. The works of the Lithuanian, based in Malaysia, interacts very nicely with the environment.

David Choe Nuart 2013

DALeast Nuart 2013

Faith47 Nuart 2013

M-City at Stavanger Airport Nuart 2013