Artist Censorship: Odee’s QR Code Mural Protests Bergen University

University’s Concerns and Breakdown in Communication

Odee informs The Art Newspaper that no concerns were raised by the college or the gallery after he submitted a first summary of his suggested work, but that connections with the college’s art department broke down after he decreased to go into more detail regarding the mural.

Samherji’s Role and Artistic Expression

In 2014, the chief executive of Samherji, which is based in Iceland however has substantial service interests in Norway as well as in the UK where it trades as Seagold, was priced quote in the Guardian as stating that academic institutions, which “provided their blessing” to hallmark infractions under the role of artistic expression, must provide “major factor to consider” to any kind of future decisions.

Pre-emptive Censorship and Legal Challenges

“Pre-emptive censorship is unlawful under Norwegian legislation,” Odee says, including that the institution did not interact appropriately and that stress over what his job may include were not a sufficient reason to prohibit him from exhibiting.

Odee, who states his technique is rooted in “culture jamming”, is at existing appealing a UK court ruling, which purchased him to take down a previous online job highlighting affirmed corruption by one of the globe’s largest fishing companies, Samherji.

QR Code Mural: A Digital Protest

The QR code links to a website, Kunsthall.art, which can be upgraded from another location. Its homepage presently contains a picture of a muppet bordered by melting fires and links to letters in between Odee and the Bergen University art department including a demand from the artist that the head of the division, Katrine Hjelde, surrender.

The piece is the Icelandic musician Odee’s response to assignations he alleges were held between the College of Bergen and the city’s Kunsthall gallery that caused their pre-emptively censoring of a job he prepared to expose at the Kunsthalle as part of his MFA graduation show.

“This did not occur to any type of various other pupil,” he says. “This obviously had a significant influence on the job, so I transformed my plans in the nick of time and now my mural is a QR code that takes the audience to a website that resembles the Kunsthall.”