Symbolic art project at Olavshaugen in Stiklestad: PINK TRIANGLE
SYMBOL-heavy ART PROJECT AT OLAVSHAUGEN IN STIKLESTAD: PINK TRIANGLE
For the first time, the Olsok exhibition 2022 will include an art installation at Olavshaugen in Stiklestad. Through a collaboration between this year's Olsokkunstner Pride Art, Stiklestad National Cultural Center (SNK) and the Historical Memorial Association, visitors this summer will experience a monumental work of art that both marks the Weird Cultural Year and actualizes Olavshaugen's role as a memorial site and symbolic arena for almost a thousand years. The work will be six meters high and has been given the title PINK TRIANGLE.
The Olsok exhibition is a central part of the cultural festival Olsokdagene in Stiklestad (26-31 July). "An important motivation for SNK to have an olsok artist is the desire to constantly add new interpretations of the symbolic place Stiklestad. Another important goal is to ensure that Stiklestad is a place where you meet a diversity of voices, as well as our focus on elevating the role of art as expression and a democratic pillar", says Heidi Anett Øvergård Beistad, director of SNK. The choice of the artist organization Pride Art as this year's Olsok artist is also characterized by the fact that the theme for the Olsok Days 2022 is FREE. An important reason for the choice of theme is Skeivt kulturår. "We are enormously grateful for the collaboration with Pride Art on this year's Olsok exhibition. The fact that the Association of Historical Monuments also enters into this collaboration so that we can realize an art intervention at one of the country's most symbolic places, Olavshaugen, makes me incredibly proud", says Beistad.
The artwork ROSA TREKANT will consist of a six meter high installation in metal and Plexiglas. The eye-catcher will be a luminous, pink triangle. The pink triangle is a symbol with a dark background story. It was used during Hitler's Nazi regime to label gay men during the Holocaust. In the 1970s, however, the triangle was adopted by homosexuals as a symbol of struggle.
It was, among other things, an important marker in activism around HIV/AIDS under the slogan "Silence=death" and is still used as a symbol in the queer rights fight.
The art installation will be designed by Stephan Udbjørg, board member of Pride Art. Pride Art is an art activist organization that brings together over 600 queer artists and artistic resources with backgrounds from 25 different countries. They work for increased diversity and representation of marginalized and ignored voices and perspectives. Through art, they seek to create an increased understanding of queer people's lives and reality, e.g. by stimulating a change in attitude through openness and the powerful tool that art constitutes in the fight against discrimination and prejudice. Frederick Lucius Nathanael, head of Pride Art, emphasizes the importance and contemporary relevance of the work ROSA TREKANT: "In 68 countries it is still a crime to be gay. In 8 it is the death penalty. In addition, there is a wind of fascism, extremism and attacks on queer rights both in Europe and the rest of the world. There is increasing criticism of Pride, which is called ideology, among other things. The pink triangle must therefore appear to remind us of what this can lead to. There is a lot of partying under the rainbow, but we have to show that there is still reason to protest. In Norway, for example, 40% of queers are not satisfied with life, and there are twice as many living conditions problems and suicide among queers. The fight is not over and art is one of our strongest weapons.”
The choice of Olavshaugen as the venue for ROSA TREKANT is symbolic. Olavshaugen is, according to legend, the place where King Olav Haraldsson's body was hidden the night after the battle at Stiklestad on 29 July in 1030. The mound became, in extension of this, an important memorial site at Stiklestad and not least: an arena for symbolic markings, including the active use of the National Collection of the mound in the years 1934 – 1945. A concrete manifestation of this is that a number of monuments have been erected on the mound, probably as far back as the Middle Ages. The current support dates from 1807. In addition, the so-called NS-bautaen is buried there. This summer's art installation will thus not only be a stand-alone work, but also a temporary monument that joins the thousand-year tradition of using Olavshaugen for strong expressions. By virtue of this, the work will both engage in dialogue with the monuments that have been erected on the mound in the past and use the power of the site itself to direct attention to and invite conversations about the ongoing struggle for queer rights nationally and internationally.
Olavshaugen is owned by the Association of Historical Monuments. SNK and the Association for Historical Remembrance have a close collaboration based on the following ambition: towards the National Jubilee 2030, Olavshaugen is to be further developed as a place of remembrance and an arena for thematizing the use of history in a millennial perspective. General secretary Ola H. Fjeldheim of the Heritage Association says the following about the association's motivation for joining this summer's art project: "Cultural monuments very often contribute to putting our time in perspective. Olavshaugen has long had a strong symbolic value, and has been used as a place where values are conveyed and interpreted. The pile is still very relevant, and it is only natural for the Historical Heritage Association to let it be part of the important marking that this year's Olsok exhibition will be."
The Olsok exhibition 2022 "Queer Spirit" will be opened on 26 July by the president of the Church of Norway, Olav Fykse Tveit. It will be a collective exhibition with contributions from dozens of artists using the entire Stiklestad area. In connection with the exhibition, there will also be daily performative works during the Olsok Days, as well as talks and lectures. The exhibition will be on display until August.
