Trastad Collections – National Center for Outsider Art is this year's Olsok Artist
We are proud to announce that Trastad Collections – National Center for Outsider Art is the Olsok Artist of the Year during the Olsok Days at Stiklestad 2025!
Photo: Trastad Collections – National Center for Outsider Art
SNK/MA has previously collaborated with another organization on the Oslo Exhibition: Pride Art in 2022. In 2025, they have entered into a collaboration again, this time with Trastad Samlinger – National Center for Outsider Art, which is part of Sør-Troms Museum.
Outsider Art is art created by people who are active outside the established art field. Often these artists have a functional variation, mental illness(es) and/or they live on the margins of society. The National Center for Outsider Art stems from Trastad Gård – Northern Norway’s Mental Health Home, which opened in 1954. The institution was one of the first in Norway to offer adapted training and schooling for people with developmental disabilities. Design, crafts and art activities were a central part of the teaching. The enormous art collection from the institution is today managed by the National Center for Outsider Art. In addition, the center works with a rich art collection of Outsider Art artists nationally and internationally, including contemporary artists. As an extension of this, the center contributes to a number of different art arenas at home and abroad, including this year’s Venice Biennale.
This year's Olsok exhibition will consist of works from both Trastad Samlinger and a private collection. The exhibition shows a wide range of artists, both from our time and back to the institution's time at Trastad Gård. Here, the audience will have the opportunity to experience various artistic expressions such as sculpture, drawings, sound installations, painting and collage.
The exhibition will have a particular focus on what happens in the encounter between free art and society's given frameworks and structures.
Art, the Olav legacy and Stiklestad
The Olsok exhibition is a central part of the Olsok days. "Art has always been an important part of the Olav heritage. At the same time, art has a central social role as an expression and democratic pillar. In the work to further develop Stiklestad as a relevant and powerful symbolic place also for our own time, the Olsok exhibition therefore plays an important role", says Heidi Anett Øvergård Beistad, director of the Museums Arven. "We are therefore enormously grateful that the National Center for Outsider Art has accepted to be this year's Olsok artist. Their focus on reducing exclusion, ensuring diversity and contributing to a freer art and cultural life is a great inspiration. Outsider Art is an important, but little visible part of the Norwegian art scene. With this year's exhibition, we want to contribute to both visibility and a change in attitude towards art made by people with functional variations", continues Beistad.
Photo: Trastad Collections – National Center for Outsider Art
outside art
Museum educator Ragnhild Gressnes and conservator Anna Kristiansen at the National Center for Outsider Art say the following about the role of Olsok artist:
"First and foremost, we would like to extend a big thank you to Stiklestad National Cultural Center and the Arven Museums for their support and belief in our important work. Their commitment helps to strengthen the role of art as a bridge builder between society's marginalized artist groups and the rest of society. Who defines our time? What should the artistic heritage of our time reflect, symbolize and include? Making Outsider Art visible in a central Norwegian art arena like this year's Olsok Exhibition contributes to a more diverse, free and inclusive Norwegian art scene. It is important to us that the exhibitions we curate should be a common arena where people can participate on their own terms regardless of prior knowledge, functional variation, and economic and social background. We hope that everyone feels welcome."
Today we define Outsider Art as original works created by people outside the professional art field. The artists are often self-taught and are genuinely interested in creating without regard to trends and conventions. Outsider Art is unruly, free, direct, and it touches – it is simply itself! At the same time, Outsider Art is more than just a form of expression, it is an opportunity for people to communicate their unique perspectives, and it helps them find a sense of belonging and identity. For the group of artists selected for this year's Olsok exhibition, given social structures, cognitive abilities or verbal language have not set limits to the desire to create and the desire to express themselves. For them, art represents a sanctuary, a belonging and an expression of their identity.
Theme Borders
The choice of Olsok artist is influenced by the festival's theme. The theme for Olsokdagene 2025 is BOUNDARIES. "The theme was chosen for several reasons," says Ingegerd Eggen, museum director for SNK. "The main reason is SNK/MA's work with the National Jubilee 2030. The anniversary relay towards 2030 involves the entire country and each year has its own theme. The theme for 2025 is MIGRATION AND IDENTITY, inspired by the national emigrant anniversary that marks 200 years since the first Norwegian emigrants left for the United States, og BOUNDARIES is our interpretation of this. In addition, the theme is inspired by a time when the world is simultaneously perceived as both more borderless and more border-oriented, more global and more nationalistic, where discussions about community and exclusion are becoming an increasingly important part of public discourse, and where more and more people are fleeing, across borders, from war, climate change and political regimes. During the 2025 Olsok Days, we will therefore approach BOUNDARIES "in the past, present and future and in everything from major social issues to intimate and personal issues," says Eggen.
This year's Olsokdager takes place from July 24th to 29th. The play about Saint Olav is played on July 25th, 26th, 27th and 29th.
The Olsok exhibition will remain on display until September.
Oddleif Bang, untitled. Photo: Trastad Collections – National Center for Outsider Art
SNK/MA has previously announced that Ingeborg Senneset is this year's Stiklestad profile and that DDE with soloists from Verdal Teaterlag will be performing the opening concert. The rest of the program will be released at the end of May.