The Norwegian Ideal State
(2017 – 2018)
Alt Går Bra
Image: Alt Går Bra
The Norwegian Ideal State / Alt Går Bra (Tout Va bien): The Assembly
7th — 9th September
Place: LevArt, Kirkegata 11
How often do you get the opportunity to talk about your visions of an ideal society? You are invited to be an audience member at the public assembly, «Den norske idealstaten», from 7th–9th at LevArt. This will be a forum to dialogue with a set of speakers, all residents of Levanger, who will share their (positive) visions for a just society. Your role is as important as theirs – to discuss, to begin a process of actively imagining a better society and organising ourselves around our desired ideas.
This project of civic engagement in public re-imagining and social dreaming is conceived and carefully facilitated by artist group Alt Går Bra ( Tout Va Bien). Philosopher, Platonist and researcher on dialogic practice, Tor Freyr, will participate in the event. As part of the event there is an exhibition in two parts: One that shows paintings based on people’s imagination of a better society, visualised through talks with the artists. The other presents sketches and models by over a hundred architecture students who worked with Alt Går Bra on proposals for a meeting place in the park in Levanger. The students are from The National School of Architecture Paris La Villette (ENSAPLV), France, and Bergen Architecture School (BAS), Bergen, Norway.
Fri. 7th Sept.
18.00 to 20.00 – Opening of the exhibition
Sat. 8th Sept.
10.00 to 16.30 – Assembly
19.00 – Backyard party at SV-Huset, Kirkegt 69
Sun. 9th Sept.
10.00 to 16.30 – Assembly
“The Norwegian Ideal State” is a project initiated by artist group Alt Går Bra (Tout Va Bien), and will take place in five towns across Norway. The project is based on Plato’s ‘Republic’, which becomes a starting point for the visions of a better future and public assemblies across the country. In Levanger, the project is part of ‘PARK.’ – a long term initiative by LevArt against the backdrop of the municipality’s decision to transform the old schoolyard around LevArt’s premises into a new public park. “The Norwegian Ideal State” is concluding with a public assembly. Meanwhile, the project is manifesting physically as a meeting place in the becoming-park; like a Greek agora, a “space of appearance”, for conversations and discussions. Thus, the artists gesture to the park as a potential center for the city’s artistic, spiritual and political life.
Alt Går Bra is a group of visual artists researching the intersections between art and politics through exhibitions, performances, discursive events, and publications. Since 2015, they have conducted and produced an extensive series of events, readings, performances, lectures, studies and publications, including the ongoing international lecture program Tout Va Bien series in collaboration with Bergen Kunsthall / Landmark from 2015, and the publications The Mimeograph, A Tool for Radical Art and Political Contestation and A Moi le Plaire, a Toi le Faire in 2016.
Tor Freyr is an associate professor at Østfold University College. He holds a Master’s in philosophy from the University of Oslo (2004, Plato and Feminism) and a doctorate from Uppsala University (2016, The Social Aspect of Plato’s Ethics). He also studied dialogic practice from the University College in Buskerud and Vestfold. His research interests are Plato’s philosophy, virtue ethics, philosophy of existence, philosophical conversations, dialogic practice, social learning and pedagogic philosophy.
“The Norwegian Ideal State” has received financial support from Fritt Ord, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, KORO-URO, Levanger municipality and Hordaland county.
Photo: Siv Hilde Meen