How did we get here?

In 2014, Jonas Dahlberg won the international competition for the creation of memorials to commemorate the victims of the terror attack in Oslo and Utøya. The winning proposal was never realized after a small group of residents near the memorial site of Utøya sued the government, subsequently politicians responded by canceling the project just one month before construction was set to begin and after four years of work. In the aftermath of contending with the complexities of public mourning, private motivations, media, government and institutional oversight – and the questions that all of this generated – Dahlberg started Of Public Interest (OPI).

In our complex and politically polarized world, OPI’s mission is to develop methods and spaces, places and projects, that insist on that the most important quality of our shared living environment is its potential to hold a multitude of positions, intentions, values, as well as all kinds of disagreements.

Our starting point is the negotiating of artistic voices and values, so they can play a more active role in re-imagining the values our society is built upon and question what is, could, or should be - of public interest.

Of Public Interest is built up by three co-existing entities