Norwegian cinema premiere of ‘The Square’ by Anders Eiebakke

Date: Saturday, 16 March, 2024

Time: 3-5PM

Venue: Vega Scene, Hausmanns gate 28, 0182 Oslo

Book tickets here (concession prices available)

Languages: The film is in English and Norwegian with subtitles in both languages. The panel discussion will be in Norwegian.

The film, which is based on actual events, is the diary of a middle-aged man who is involuntarily drawn into a web of surveillance, infiltration and paranoia in a city that physically resembles Oslo, but could be anywhere in Western Europe. Beginning production in 2018, the film is an artistic investigation of the police’s intelligence work against activist communities in Oslo, which has, among other things, resulted in the artist’s expulsion from Oslo city center during the work on the film.

Consisting of historical material, own material filmed from the ground and self-produced drones, drawings, animations and 3D models, the film provides insight into how cities in Western Europe are increasingly characterized by the production of images that the public does not have access to, but which is used to map and regulate the public spaces in which we move.

Eiebakke says:
“The film compares the Norwegian police’s more primitive strategies from my youth with today’s use of surveillance technology and covert agents of influence. There are almost no riots in Oslo’s city centre or periphery anymore. But do the methods the police use against activist communities withstand the light of day? Has a toxic culture developed in the police where ‘the end sanctifies the means’, and where civil society’s formation of free speech and opinion is influenced by them, in contrary to the notion of democratic ideals the police are supposed to protect?”

The film documents how the programme which the police themselves describe as “the dialogue police” is in reality an intelligence unit that weaponises “dialogue” as a method to gather information, and at the same time gain influence in activist communities. In this way, activists become informants without even being aware of it, and the police make use of spies and surveillance technology that continuously map them and the networks they are part of. The film documents how political surveillance and influence work takes place as a masked effort against “civil disorder”, and a threat to democracy that concerns us all.

Participants in the panel discussion are:

Anders Eiebakke, filmmaker and artist

Hatem Ben Mansour, lawyer and director for The Norwegian Centre Against Racism

Hatem Ben Mansour is a lawyer with an education in human rights, has worked as general manager at the Anti-racist Center for the past two years. The Norwegian Centre Against Racism or Anti-Racism Centre(Norwegian: Antirasistisk Senter; NCAR) is a non-governmental organization based in Oslo, Norway established in 1983. Ben Mansour has experience from his student days as a security guard in Oslo S, one of Oslo’s most monitored areas, and as a lawyer in the control body Immigration Board. Recently, he participated in work with recommendations following the evaluation of the trial scheme with a receipt scheme in Oslo.

Ketil Lund, former chairman of ICJ-N (International Commission of Jurists, Norway) and the Lund Commission

The ICJ is a human rights organization that looks after a wide range of rule of law and human rights interests through various specialist committees. The association is based on personal membership and company membership. Ketil Lund undertakes assignments to a limited extent as speaker, consultant, broker and arbitrator. The Lund Commission was the Norwegian Parliament’s commission of inquiry into post-war Norwegian secret services, appointed on 1 February 1994 on the basis of several allegations of illegal surveillance of Norwegian citizens after 1945. The commission was chaired by Supreme Court judge Ketil Lund. The commission’s mandate was to investigate all matters in connection with allegations that the police surveillance service, the Armed Forces’ security service and the Armed Forces’ intelligence service, or persons connected to these services, had been engaged in illegal or irregular surveillance of Norwegian citizens. A special law was passed which gave the Commission of Inquiry authority as a court to question witnesses directly before the Commission. The report, which was published on 8 May 1996, concluded that illegal political surveillance had taken place in Norway after 1945, primarily of individuals and groups on the political left.

The panel conversation is made possible with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation

Anders Eiebakke (b.1970) first showed how civil society can use technology reserved for authorities when he flew his self-produced drones from Morocco over the border fence of the Spanish exclave of Melilla in North Africa. As an artist, has been operating his own drones, usually inspired by birds, since 2007 and his works reflect his political background from the radical left

Eiebakke’s pioneering artistic work with drones was shown at the European biennial Manifesta in 2010, and he has since challenged the understanding of legislation and power relations in technology with and delivered a decoration to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority based on drone technology in 2016. In 2018, he created an extensive, performative work based on on historical studies at PAM 18 in Munich where, among other things, he developed a robot peace dove that paid tribute to the German revolution in 1918.

In 2020, Eiebakke produced the video suite ‘The Park’ for Fotogalleriet as part of the discursive artistic programme ‘Lets Talk About Images 2.1.0’, which reflected on the muddled history of the monumental Vigeland Park’s and connected this to modern-day conspiracy theories and a fictional(?) pandemic. ‘The Square’ is the artist’s first independent film produced for viewing outside a biennale or exhibition space format.

The screening is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Fotogalleriet and Vega Scene regarding the screening of art films for a wider audience, and outside the gallery space. The program is coordinated by Vega Scene’s Head of cinema programming Truls Foss, Head of cinema communications Raghild Pedersen, and the Fotogalleriet curatorial team: Curator and Head of mediation and communications for Fotogalleriet Håkon Lillegraven, Curator and Head of Exhibitions Miki Gebrelul, and Artistic Director Antonio Cataldo.

Title: The Square
Duration: 50 minutes
Language: Norwegian and English with subtitles
Concept, script, and images: Anders Eiebakke
Release year: 2024