Agder Art Academy is a collective artwork in the form of a three-year art education programme in Agder Prison, Froland; a collaborative work between inmates and professional artists. It is an art education programme as public art, produced by KORO (Public Art Norway). The art academy offers a free, experimental art programme, developed and run by artists, for inmates in a maximum security prison. The exhibition Art as Punishment presents the history and results of this project at Kunstnernes Hus from 24.11.2023-28.01.2024. The seminar takes place in the actual architecture of the Art Academy's classroom in Froland, a flexible interior developed by architect Alexander F and the students, produced in the prison's wood workshop and moved in its entirety to Kunstnernes Hus.

Click here to read more about the exhibition Art as Punishment.

Sentencing in a high-security prison is an everyday life and reality that most people get little insight into. When the project now meets the public, this space opens up a little, by giving the students' artistic expression a place outside the sentencing situation. Through the exhibited works of art and the framework for the Art Academy that is made visible through them, the exhibition thematizes important issues such as artistic freedom and freedom of expression, the relationship between state bodies for culture and justice, art's liberating potential and role in society.

On Friday 5 January, we invite you to a seminar that can shed light on the social, political, humanitarian, ethical, artistic and legal aspects of the project, and invites in questions and reactions from the audience. The seminar raises a number of questions about the space and possibilities for free expression and the freedom of inmates, both during and after their sentence. Can one describe the framework for this space of expression, who defines it externally and how is it internalized by the individual? How does society welcome inmates when they are released, both as citizens and as artists who express themselves in public? What are the frameworks for the freedom of expression of people in prison. Beyond the prison context, we hope to have an honest and open conversation about limitations of the space of expression, from several perspectives, alongside general questions about guilt, shame, censorship and self-censorship.

15:00 Coffee and tea at the reception desk and the Academy room

15:15 Words of welcome and introduction/background for the seminar by the main curators of the three-year KORO project Agder Art Academy and the exhibition Art as Punishment, Kristine Jærn Pilgaard and Thora Dolven Balke, with a speech from Nora Nerdum, Head of Section at KORO

15:30 Guided tour in Art as Punishment with Thora Dolven Balke and Kristine Jærn Pilgaard

16:00 Presentation by Mads Andenæs, professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo

16:20 Contribution by Zubair, student at Agder Art Academy

Break 10 min (16:35-16:45)

16:45 Film screening and presentation by artist Lene Berg

17:15 Contribution by Mohamed Abdi, teacher and social debater

Break 15 min (17:30-17:45)

17:45-19:00 Summary, discussion and questions from the audience