PAVILJONG

How can we use and protect environments on land, sea, forests, marshes and wetlands? These questions characterize both our present and certainly our future and are the starting point for the long-term collaboration Pavilion. Here we focus our eyes, tune our ears, sharpen our senses of smell and taste and think with and about Østensjøvannet nature reserve and its peripheral zones. The nature reserve is located in urban surroundings in the east of Oslo, squeezed between buildings, highways, hiking trails, football fields and farms. A heavily trafficked road runs right through the two protected areas Østensjøvannet and Bogerudmyra. Life in the reserve is protected for its unique biodiversity, and is primarily known as a breeding ground for a variety of bird species.

Pavilion was created in 2019 during the gathering 'Radical Land Preservation Pavilion'. One of the things that united the participating artists was a shared interest in the study of place as an artistic process. Together we wrote a Siting. Central to Pavilion is a reflection on national parks, nature reserves and the protection of land as a historical idea, but also as an expression of widespread ways of thinking and valuing in different time periods. Postcolonial discourse has highlighted problematic aspects of the values on which the idea of national parks and nature reserves is built. The extinction of species, climate change and increased pressure on land, water and wetland areas challenge the relationships between humans and nature. In cultural practice and innovation, nature becomes the recipient of our actions, a recipient that protests in other ways than words.

Why have we engaged with Østensjøvannet nature reserve with our long-term studies, when there are many other protected areas where the above mentioned challenges are more visible? One answer is that our experiences in the urban fringes of Østensjøvannet nature reserve are important for understanding the piecemeal nature loss that often threatens such areas. The outer edges of the conservation zone are constantly being negotiated, and life forms on land, in water and in wetlands are affected by human needs and activity at an steadily increasing pace.

The buffer for such pressure is, among other things, the interest organization Østensjøvannets venner. It started as a people's action in the early 1980s to defeat a development project right next to the water, and became a driving force for the protection of the area. Much of the friends' diverse work is about ensuring that people use the area without consuming it.

In Paviljong, we discuss how we can avoid consuming our surroundings and how, at the same time, human presence in “natural” environments must not be reduced to recreation and tourism. Are there more ways to think about and around protection? What is the leeway for people who seek out protected areas? Can we interact with the life that is being protected? Is it even possible to think that nature can be protected through use? And if so, what might this look like from an artistic perspective? Such questions have formed the basis for The Wetland Pavilion.

In 2022, we met during frequent gatherings at Østensjøvannet, where we shared experiences, ideas and work processes related to various peripheral zones in the wetland reserve. That fall, this was manifested in seven different works with public showings.
Between 2024 and 2027, the seven art projects will be activated and become part of what we have chosen to call the Wetland Library. We think of the library as a “time lens”, not only for the areas that are changing, but also as a lens to observe changes in how we understand the coexistence of life forms in this area and the place of art in this interaction.

Andrea Bakketun, Espen Sommer Eide, Geir Tore Holm, Øyvind Novak Jenssen, Søssa Jørgensen, Signe Lidén, Marie Nerland, Randi Nygård, Karoline Sætre.


P.s. A lot of Pavilion manifests itself in Norwegian, but The Wetland Walkinar is a part of the project that is taking place in English.


The project is supported by KORO, Arts Council Norway og Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond