This text may be subject to any changes made during the performance of the speech.

Dear friends,

I have been asked to say a few words about art and culture as driving forces in a democracy. No small task! So what better way to start than by showing you this photograph?

Two summers ago I was contacted by the acclaimed Norwegian artist Marianne Heske. Marianne had the idea for an art project that she was desperate to realise. Her notion was to take a run-down, 150-year-old small farm house from the remote Norwegian countryside and to reassemble it on the lawn directly in front of the Storting.

Eccentric and bizarre, you might say? I thought it was an irresistible idea! The chance to create an arena for reflection through the medium of art.

Marianne called the installation The House of Commons, and by doing so linked the project even more closely to the heart of Norwegian democracy. For me, this small cottage provides the perfect thematic doorway into the main topic of today’s seminar.

What is the role of art, and what needs does it cover in Europe’s democracies? To some extent how you reply will depend on the state of democracy in your chosen country.

It’s a commonly held assumption that modern-day nations that produce genuinely hard-hitting art must also be under social and political pressure. Art is a mouthpiece; perhaps the only way to express oneself.

Time and again we can see how similar the qualities of art and artistic expression are to those of water. The authorities may try to dam them up, to build barriers. But sooner or later the dam will burst, or the water will find an alternative route.

And this isn’t just the case in pure dictatorships. In fragile democracies, as well, art must play its part in questioning the powers that be. A role that’s both natural and necessary for art and artists to take.

On the other hand, some could go so far as to say that for a country like my own, art is redundant; basically superfluous as an outlet for expressing opposing views.

Does art and culture genuinely have the power to change politics and society in Norway today? Can contemporary art really mobilize voters in their masses or play a decisive role in major political issues? I somehow doubt it. Recent examples are certainly hard to find. 

So what, then, is art’s place in democracy? Allow me to give you at least one of a number of possible answers.

We’re living in a time of extreme change. To take just one example, our generation is the very first to have deciphered the human genome – our genetic code. Technology is changing working life and society at large at a frankly mindboggling rate. Globalization affects society, politics, culture and the economy.

Is it possible for liberal, western democracies to emerge unscathed from this, without carrying along, acquiring and absorbing art and culture? For me, that’s a very difficult …; in fact, it’s an impossible task.

As a rule, our conversations about works of art – be they public or private – have political associations and implications of one form or another.

In this way, art becomes a means of digesting, absorbing, acquiring and comprehending. Its role is to facilitate understanding and to expose what lies below the surface. Artistic expression helps us to relate to the collective mental state.

But for this to happen, art must remain free. Totally free. Free from efforts to intervene in its expression and content. Free from efforts to govern it. Free from efforts to attach terms and conditions to its funding. Free.

The job of the authorities is to be art’s facilitators, but never art’s creators. In practice, this is often easier said than done. Even here in Norway the separate branches of artistic autonomy and political utility can sometimes become regrettably intertwined. Fortunately, censure is never far away; the public debate is on hand to act as a remedy.

Perhaps we could put it like this. We as politicians must be willing to give a House of Commons a chance when an artist comes calling. But we should remember that it’s never our job to fill this House of Commons with substance and meaning or to interfere with its creation.

And with these words, it’s a great honour for me to officially declare the seminar open.