Imprisoning art
E-building was the name of an empty prison building, part of Bjørgvin prison in Bergen, seemingly without any potential. 1 500 square meters of raw concrete that nobody knew what to do with became a dream space for 25 art students from Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
“The building used to be an asylum house for mentally ill people in the 1960s, but it has been used as a part of an open prison system since the 1970s,” says Jon Arne Mogstad Professor at Bergen National Academy of the Arts. The Academy is part of the KUNO network (Kunst Utdanninger i Norden). Thanks to the teacher exchange programme in Nordplus the idea of cooperation and a joint exhibition was born. E-building is a part of the “Site Specific Art Revisited” course focusing on art location.
“It was challenging and exciting to have such a big, open and freezing cold space to work with,” says Cornelia, one of the Norwegian students. To get to know each other and to come up with good ideas of how to use the building was a purpose of the first of two project weeks.
Singing guard
“Even if we worked separately, each one on his own project, it was an inspiration to work together. The prisoners were very helpful too. It seemed that they enjoyed having us around,” points out Cornelia. She played a singing prison guard as part of her performance art.
“I managed to confuse many people, even some of the prisoners wondered if I was a new employee,” laughs the young artist.
“Two completely different parts of society met with huge success and turned a prison into an exciting exhibition room,” comments professor Mogstad pleased.
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