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Oslo is lighting up with messages of peace as the Norwegian capital hosts the fifth edition of Fjord Oslo, an international festival of outdoor light art.
Taking place across the city, the festival brings together artists from different countries, with installations illuminating buildings, public spaces and the Nobel Peace Center.
This year’s edition explores what peace means through art and shared experiences. It is part of IMAGINE PEACE, a European Union-funded cultural project.
The festival explores peace on a wider scale, looking at themes such as war, resilience, freedom and coexistence.
Organiser and light artist Anastasia Isachsen says holding the event in Oslo, home of the Nobel Peace Prize, gives the project particular significance. “Hopefully we send a strong message by dedicating our festival to the topic of peace. And again, it is about imagining what peace is on many different levels. It’s also about global peace, international peace. But it’s also on the personal level, what peace is for you as a person.”
Croatian artist Marko Bolkovic says his team asked people in six countries to describe peace in just one word. “We asked a lot of people around the world, especially in this six countries that are part of the festival, what is peace for you to just say it in one word? And it was really interesting. Answers like father, friendship, mother, friends, things like that. Not always know war or other stuff.”
Can art help change the way people think about peace?
Norwegian visitor Ulrich Lauridsen believes it can. “I definitely think that art can change things. Not like stop a war, but it can get more people to want to stop a war because life is too precious to have wars and conflicts and all that.”
For Kenyan visitor Faith Imani, peace is above all about freedom. “I think it means freedom and for me, that’s what it means, the freedom to leave, the freedom to exist, with each other, the freedom to be able to move within the world. So that is what peace means to me. The sense of freedom to just live and exist, coexist with everyone around.”