3.1.6 Art as a Strategy

3.1.5. Art as a Strategy

The struggles Svartlamo(e)n has faced with the governance in terms of fighting for their right to housing is shown in different art pieces on the buildings in Svartlamo(e)n. On our transect walk, Kathrine introduced us to the art on the buildings and explained how it was an important part of saving Svartlamo(e) n. In collaboration with Håkon Gullvåg and Håkon Bleken, a huge wall decoration on a house threatened with demolition in Biskop Darres gate no. 10, Svartlamo(e)n was put up. The work was given as a gift for the city’s 1000th anniversary (Transect walk, Aug. 2021). But at this time, the municipality was not happy about the measure, as it was painted on a house in a district that had been decided to be demolished.

The painting was made at the request of the residents of Svartlamo(e)n, as part of the years-long struggle against Trondheim municipality’s attempts to clean up the characteristic buildings. The decoration is painted directly on an approximately 8 x 7-meter large gable wall. Bleken was given responsibility for the upper part, which he decorated with two Justitia figures in white robes against a blue sky, while Gullvåg painted on his part the cross-section of a house that was furnished and inhabited (Transect walk, Aug. 2021). With this, Gullvåg effectively emphasized the value of Svartlamo(e)n being allowed to live on. The motif is simple and stylized, so that it works well even from a distance.

The way the two renowned and established artists used their pictorial expression to preserve other cultural values is unique in the Norwegian context. In fact, the municipality repeatedly banned them from painting, but the artists defied this. The case received great media coverage. But the politicians and the commercial actors did not give up so easily, the following year after 1997 there was talk of moving the entire painted house to the folk museum and demolishing the rest of the buildings. Therefore, the artists painted a small oval wafer on each of the 12 houses threatened with demolition. (Lundemo, 2015) Gullvåg got the idea for the wafers in the Old Town of Prague, where the houses have painted pictures or symbols instead of numbers. (Mona Undisdatter, 2016)

This case is a unique phenomenon in Norwegian times, where art has functioned as an active protest against a political decision, and probably contributed to the demolition of Svartlamo(e)n being stopped.

Figure 22: Preserved Painting on a Svartlamo(e)n House wall, Huan Chang

46 | Trondheim | Svartlamo(e)n Figure 23: Stand for selling hommade honey in Svartlamo(e)n, Sara Hafezi