Public spending, public support An artist who received 400,000 kr for talking to Norwegian salmon via Skype:

Earlier this month, artist Michelle Marie Letelier visited the village of Matrei, about an hour’s drive north of Bergen. It was the last trip out of a total of four visits to the Marine Research Institute, where Letelier has been trying for more than two years to bond with farmed salmon.

The artist said on his last visit to Matarieh For Avisa Nordland She had regular Skype conversations with the fish. In the project “The Bonding”, she used dancing, singing and conversation as tools for communicating with salmon.

In the aquarium at the Marine Research Institute, Littleler bathed naked, among other things, in eight-degree cold water to get as close to the fish as possible.

– bonding It gave me the opportunity to understand the empirical research from a different point of view, and contributed to the sensory and emotional elements that permeate the studies. The association with an animal belonging to the sea and rivers, on which agriculture is now practiced, is a reminder of our origins as a lively and self-aware species, Letelier wrote in an email to Netavizen.

He earned 400,000 crowns for art in public

The artist says that since 2017, she has worked in multiple disciplines with Norwegian fishermen, UiB researchers, UiO philosophers and local artists. The aim was to understand salmon farming, traditional fish farming and management, current technology, and ethical and political issues in Norway.

Project supported 400,000 kr From Art in Public Spaces (KORO).

Are Søberg, also known as the Waste Ombudsman job With over 91,000 followers where he questions the use of money. When asked why he reacted, he replied:

– It was the perfect combination of all kinds of weird ingredients: tax money spent on video calls with salmon and sensual touch while showering naked. It’s very funny, says the waste Ombudsman.

Søberg points out that KORO’s main mission is to manage and disseminate art in public buildings and public squares. He wonders how Letelier’s communication with farmed salmon fits into this context.

This salmon project seems completely inaccessible to most people. And why does a Chilean woman living in Berlin get support from Norway? Why can’t Germany fix this on its own?

– How would you describe the project?

– I must reserve that there is something more here that is part of an overall project. But based on what’s being presented in the local paper, I’d say it’s nonsense.

Soberg thinks there is little value to the Norwegian audience because the artist Littleler sang and danced for farmed Norwegian salmon via Skype. Therefore, it also interacts with the size of the amount allocated by the Norwegian Letelier authorities.

The amount is equivalent to what three Norwegians pay in tax in a year. I’m not at all happy with the idea of working for three years to fund this project, says Soberg.

Kuro answers: – A smart and clear art project

LITTLEER PROJECT bonding Filmed on 16mm film as part of a multimedia installation, it has already been part of exhibitions in Germany and Spain as a work in progress. Now that the project is soon completed, exhibitions are scheduled in Chile, Norway and Germany in 2022.”

KORO Director Sigurd Sverre Sandmo wrote in an email to Nettavisen that the salmon industry has emerged as one of the largest in Norway. Industry has a number of political, cultural, biological and ethical aspects, which Norwegians both within and outside of the industry are interested in.

Sandmo writes that Michelle Marie Letelier has a clever and well-articulated art project that salmon researchers, art institutions, and Koro wanted to contribute to.

The director writes that KORO pays little attention to the applicant’s nationality when considering the issue of financial support. On the other hand, it is important that the project be implemented in Norway or in cooperation with Norwegian actors or otherwise contact the Norwegian community. Sandmo assures Letelier does all of this.

– What is the relationship of the project with decorating the public space?

Art in public spaces includes both outdoor and indoor physical works, exhibitions, performances, and various forms of artistic exploration. Project Letelier is extensive in this context. Like many other technical projects that started in 2019/2020, it has faced challenges during the pandemic, which KORO has been constantly reporting on. We look forward to its completion.

It is not practical to justify the value

Letelier writes in an email to Nettavisen that working with him bonding It raised a number of questions. The project led her to the conclusion that salmon is a subject and therefore – according to Aristotle’s teachings – has its own feelings, attitudes and beliefs.

Because it is genetically manipulated by farming today, salmon today is defined as a biomass, writes Littleler and asks:

Do farmed animals have the same rights to live on an equal basis with other non-human animals? Is farmed salmon an echo of our increasingly technology-controlled species?

It declines to comment on how much KORO paid for the project.

It is not my job to justify the value of my agreement with KORO, Letelier answers.

greater context

Are Søberg is critical of KORO’s support for Letelier, and his post about the art project is Waste Ombudsman’s “turnover” measured in all-out reactions, comments and posts.

KORO Director Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo wrote in an email to Nettavisen that Waste Ombudsman might find it strange that the artist swam with farmed salmon, but the project is so much more than that.

Many art projects contain individual elements that can be taken out of context and caricatured. Part of Letelier’s project was to ask questions about whether it was ever possible to imagine individuals in the amazingly large biomass that farmed salmon had become, and whether it was possible to establish a relationship or find a single fish, Sandmo writes.