Oslo, Norway, 2004
Permanent Installation
In 2004 Esther Shalev-Gerz conceived White Point – Meeting Point as her invited proposal to the juried competition for a public artwork for Oslo’s new Centre for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities. Located in Villa Grande, the former residency of pro-Nazi politician Vidkun Kisling, the Centre's mandate is to produce research, debate and exhibitions about both historic and recent crimes against humanity, especially of genocide and towards minorities.
Shalev-Gerz proposed that a layer of white domestic paint, surrounding and encasing the entire Villa Grande building, be applied to a smooth base of dark concrete. Outdoors this vulnerable surface would accumulate traces of passage by future visitors. Every year at the Centre’s invitation the gradually vanishing colour of White Point was to be refreshed by school children. They were to not only repaint the ground but engage in dialogue with people about the mandate of the HL Centre. During a week, discussions and exchanges were to take place, exemplifying mutual understanding and respect in contemporary society.
Villa Grande would be transformed to a laboratory for future considerations of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in a place where just the contrary had took place.
Oslo, Norway, 2004
Permanent Installation
In 2004 Esther Shalev-Gerz conceived White Point – Meeting Point as her invited proposal to the juried competition for a public artwork for Oslo’s new Centre for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities. Located in Villa Grande, the former residency of pro-Nazi politician Vidkun Kisling, the Centre's mandate is to produce research, debate and exhibitions about both historic and recent crimes against humanity, especially of genocide and towards minorities.
Shalev-Gerz proposed that a layer of white domestic paint, surrounding and encasing the entire Villa Grande building, be applied to a smooth base of dark concrete. Outdoors this vulnerable surface would accumulate traces of passage by future visitors. Every year at the Centre’s invitation the gradually vanishing colour of White Point was to be refreshed by school children. They were to not only repaint the ground but engage in dialogue with people about the mandate of the HL Centre. During a week, discussions and exchanges were to take place, exemplifying mutual understanding and respect in contemporary society.
Villa Grande would be transformed to a laboratory for future considerations of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in a place where just the contrary had took place.