Art project teaches delinquents how to spray-paint ‘free Palestine’ on subway station walls

Aftenposten today

You could not make this up. An art project is teaching young delinquents how to express themselves by spray-painting “Free Palestine” on the walls of the subway station.

The picture above is from today’s Aftenposten, with the article heading saying “Spray fantasies on the subway” with the subtitle saying “Meet the wall in a creative way”. The title refers to how the youths in the project are being taught how to spray-paint the walls in the subway station with messages of their own choice. That’s right, they are receiving expert tuition, from a Berlin-based Norwegian artist, on how to best get their message across. The subtitle is a play on how the youths in question are in a special school for students who have “met the wall”, that is, are unable to function in a normal school.

So we have young thugs painting political propaganda on the walls of a public space, and this is somehow what, art? This is good? Not a critical question from the Aftenposten journalist, of course, who probably sincerely believes that “Free Palestine” cannot possibly translate into “Destroy Israel”. Except if Israel is Palestine, than the freeing of Palestine can only come about through the abortion of the zionist project, duh?

This nation is brainwashing itself to pieces.

Israelwhat has forwarded this piece of star journalism to TheOnion.

Unauthorized translation of the article:

Sprayfantasies

Meet the wall in a creative manner

Not everything which is spray-painted on subway station walls is vandalism. In Grorud eight youths paint their thoughts and fantasies right onto the concrete.

Erik Bjørnskau

Stig B.Hansen (photo)

- This is really fun. We did not know much about art and drawing before this project with Anders, at the center, says the 16 year olds Josef, Felipe and Farshad, who have found the shapes and texts on the internet, made sjablons (templates) in a workshop at the motor-center and who are now fixing the forms and colors to the concrete walls, along one of the otherwise so drab entrances to the subway station in Grorud.

Better Strøk (layers)

Anders, that’s the Berlin-based artist Anders Gjennestad, or Strøk which is his signature as a painter of murals. The workshops have been given under the auspices of  Mash Motorsenter which is attached to Sollerudstranda skole, a comprehensive school (junior high) accommodating youths who have “met the wall” to quote teacher Jens Erik Barstad. He too has accompanied the young artists into the morning sun in Grorud.

Meeting the wall is what they do here too, but in a completely different and far more creative and exiting manner.

Local affiliation, identify, immediate vicinity, city and youth are key words when the art project themed “What are you doing here?” carries out its third individual project in Grorud. Most of the eight young artists are from the borough, and are familiar with the grey concrete architecture of the subway station.

Palestine-green

- They are both creative and handy, nods Gjennestad, as he instructs 16 year old Josef Daoudon exactly where and how one is to spray-paint the sjablon (template). Along the two walls a line of text provides the background and main element, the half-ironic reminder: Every light is not the light, in increasingly large, and heavily italicized letters in green – a text selected by Gjennestad’s Swedish assistant and co-instructor, Tony Stig. Spreading out from and along the text pictures are laid which point in many directions and testify to the youths’ everyday life and interests: cars, motors, football, breakdance, snowboard, rights, injustice, minorities. Josef is in the process of laying a sjabon (template) of a Palestinian flag and filling it in with pearl-green spray-paint, and the text Free Palestine Now.

- This is fun, he nods, and tells of how the motor center of course is most about motors, cars and bicycles – sport. Artistic decoration, streetart and the like they knew little about. – But is has been fun to learn about this, says Felipe (17) who does not rule out that he will become more interested in drawing and form now.

Further into the station area artist Tone Emblemsvåg has together with other school children made an other larger mural. It is the cultural bureau Mesen which has been the producer and project-leader, and tomorrow is the official opening of the new art pieces.