Painting Oslo's City Hall Square pink

“A pink wall just screams for attention. We hope the colour will make people stop and think about what they are seeing,” says the Nobel Peace Center’s exhibitions manager Liv Astrid Sverdrup.

Painted on the pink background is a 12m long pencil pointing in one direction, and an equally large cartridge pointing in the other. The work is entitled Our Tipping Point.

“The work symbolises a crossroads and a choice. We can choose a humanitarian path, where dialogue is the solution. Or we can choose a totalitarian path, where conflict is the consequence,” explains Erik Kaspartu, the man behind Our Tipping Point.

He has painted the work directly onto the 60m long wall that conceals the site where Norway’s new National Museum is being built. In 2015, the Nobel Peace Center took the initiative to turn the wall into an arena for contemporary art, in collaboration with the property owner, Statsbygg. When the weather is fine, some 80,000 people cross Oslo’s City Hall Square (Rådhusplassen).

“We chose to use this wall as an arena for contemporary art because we wanted to make it possible for many more people to experience art without having to go into a museum or gallery. With this location, it has been important for us to choose subjects that are topical and relevant in the urban space,” says Liv Astrid Sverdrup.

The first work of wall art dealt with the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. It was called Mare Nostrum and was painted by the artists Torunn Skjelland and Vigdis Fjellheim. Since June 2016, the work Unknown Numbers, by artists Shwan Dler Qaradaki and Johannes Høie and with eight huge portraits of advocates for free-speech, have embellished the wall. Now this work, too, is hidden under a coat of bright pink paint.

“It is impossible not to relate to this colour,” says Kaspartu. “The aim is that people will take a standpoint and reflect on the choices they can make themselves. Perhaps it will become the start of a new, pink peace movement?”