Marie Skeie: It’s All for Nothing
Fridtjof Nansens Plass
13/9, 17.30 – 20.00
Free entrance
On a square by the Oslo City Hall in the centre of Oslo, you suddenly stumble across a map of Europe – specifically, the outline of the Schengen free-movement zone – traced out in 9600 1-Norwegian Kroner coins (a price refugees pay smugglers to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece avoiding the Schengen border passport controls).
You are free to pick up a coin or leave it untouched. If you prefer, take back control of the borders and reshape ‘Fortress Europe’ however you want by moving the coins around. This confrontational public sculpture is Norwegian artist Marie Skeie’s installation It’s All for Nothing, which will be placed behind Oslo’s Rådhus (City Hall) as part of the opening evening of Ultima 2018.
Skeie’s work deals with current social and political realities and are frequently centred on issues around borders and migration. Her artworks set up situations that can be manipulated, or where stories can be unfolded and exchanged. It’s All for Nothing calls to mind the relationship between economics, population displacement and public attitudes to migrants.
(Photo: Taher Bolifa)
