Spirit of the Garbage ( Eventyrsoppel ) had a ”premiere” on The Music Pavilion outside The National Theatre in the centre of Oslo, Norway in December 2006.

Reuse materials and garbage formed the material basis for the installation. The starting point was an open workshop where the audience was to create their ” worlds” in boxes that where mounted as walls between the columns of the pavilion.

The center of the installation was a 3-dimensional form, built up by formations in colored reusable plastic delivered from Veolia Environment. Annette Martens was cooperating with the visual artist Maria Almaas Frantzsen during the prosess to build up the installation.

During a weekend the public interacted in creating an installation of 200 boxes where they used recycled materials to make their world within the space of a bottle cage. These were built as walls within pavilion.

The installation was exhibited for another seven days to be viewed by the public. The project was covered by most Norwegian media (i.e. NRK TV, NRK Radio 2, Dagsavisen, Aftenposten etc.)

Around 60 000 people visited the installation during the 10 days the Spirit of the Garbage was installed on the Music Pavilion in the center of Oslo.

Spirit of the Garbage can be repeated in any urban space in cities around the world. 

The art project plays with the perspective of visualizing new qualities and senses of things that people throw away.

People traditionally identify garbage with resources, energy, over indulgence and environmental issues. I try on the other hand to focus on a different dimension, which are the possibilities of reusing it into a work of art. When recreated, I believe that the visual beauty and the resource value of garbage would be more appreciated.

Spirit of the Garbage can also give the public an opportunity to investigate and play with the narrative qualities of the material and in the reusing process they may discover objects that recall personal memories. This familiarity will load and revalue the garbage.