STREET ART #35 – Graffiti in the historical old town of Flekkefjord, Norway

The old historical town of Flekkefjord has some of Southern Norway's best preserved wooden houses. Narrow streets, boathouses and small wooden houses is a part this town, also called “Hollenderbyen”. Translated it means something like “the Dutch town”. Since 2015 graffiti and street art has emerged giving the old town a complete new look. Last september I was in Flekkefjord, which is only one and a half hour drive from where I live. The small town is easy walkable and because the first piece was done in 2015 it did not take long to find most of them.

The story behind the name - “the Dutch town” goes several centuries back. Flekkefjord was very active in trading timber and fish with Holland in the 1500s and 1600s. Oak forrests grew all over the region of southern Norway and Holland had a great need for timber, mainly for shipbuilding. Flekkefjord had the perfect location with a harbour and storage possibilities for timber. In 1652 there were a thousand departures from Amsterdam to Norway. Besides paying for the timber with silver, they exchanged goods. In that way the inhabitents of Flekkefjord were introduced to coffee, spice, tobacco etc. Many Dutchmen settled here and many young boys and girls from Flekkefjord went to Holland to work at sea and as servants.

Since 2015 graffiti and street art has emerged in the historical old town, as a contrast to the old houses. Both local and international artist have contributed to this artscene.

Norwegian artist Frode Skaren is an artist from an area not far from Flekkefjord.

This piece is done by Terje Andersen who is a graffiti artist from Flekkefjord. He became a fulltime artist in 2010/2011.

In 2016 this beautiful blue car was painted by 17 year old Axel Sunde. He has great illustrations of vehicles. He has always drawn and tried both pencil, crayons and spray paint, but usually in small formats. The first time he tried something in large format was under this year's street art under "Smaaby16"

I haven't managed to find out anything about the first painting above. But the last black and colorfull one is done by Joel Toledo and Daniel Moreno. Toledo is originally from Cuba, but in 1997 he moved to Flekkefjord and worked as a teacher. He runs a multimedia studio which he established together with Daniel Moreno. Moreno is from Gran Canaria and moved to Flekkefjord in 1998. He is a guy who has had many art exhibitions.

This artist is also Norwegian. Her expression is intuitive, inspired by the surroundings. This picture is painted on the foundation wall of the cultural school.

Flekkefjord does not have too much graffiti. It is a small town but each year artists are invited, so I am sure that when I come back in a few years there will be more. It will be exciting to see how it changes the city's appearance.

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Latest street art post, check out :
STREET ART #34 – Impressive artwork in the freetown of Christiania (Denmark)

U.J

Kristiansand, Norway

All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)

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