You’ve surely seen it by now. TV 2’s new advertising campaign, in which they boast of broadcasting what you actually want to see, not “strange crime series in Spanish” or “strange art film”. There is a lot to ask here. If a large channel should shake the head of people who like other films and series than the very broad ones. If TV 2 thinks it is unthinkable that a part of their viewers can like a lot of different things, or be curious about something other than what they usually watch. If a public broadcaster that receives large sums from the state for having program items that would perhaps not have been prioritized by purely commercial actors, is served by ridiculing precisely such programs. PLAY: Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) has no courage to tease the cultural life. Photo: Cicilie Sigrid Andersen / news Criticism came quickly. To the industry website Kampanje, TV 2’s brand director Albert Årli says that they have received more negative reactions than expected and that it was not the intention to kick against the art community in Norway. But the campaign is otherwise quite typical for its time. Because kicking at the art community, for them to kick back, is something that many people apparently find useful and beneficial. Because what has happened this autumn? Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum came out and declared that he wanted the price for the renovation of the National Theater down to a very low level. Oslo City Council stuck to plans for a massive reduction in support for Oslo Nye Teater, despite the fact that it would mean closing down the popular puppet theater at Torshov. CHILDREN’S THEATER: Oslo Nye Teater has created puppet theater for children in the Trikkestallen at Torshov for many years, here from “Mio min Mio”. Photo: LP Lorentz And in Høyre’s alternative state budget, it is proposed to cut more severely than ever before in grants and support schemes for cultural life. All this suggests that the politicians do not mind in the least infuriating the cultural workers. Presumably they welcome the criticism. Because the climate is quite hostile to culture during the day. All these schemes not only indicate that you can go hard against the artists and cultural life without losing support for it. It suggests that these actors believe there is something to be gained by designating the art of an opponent. That setting up an opposition between artists and ordinary people, and then taking on the role of ordinary people’s protector, is smart. Tight economic times help to create mistrust. It’s easy to get sidetracked. Those who have been given tighter financial limits dislike it if others come across as demanding. Add that it is an individualistic time. Parties that preach that one should be self-reliant, the forge of one’s own success, are surging forward. Then it is not so easy to be heard for those who point out that Norway is a tiny language area, where the audience base is simply not large enough to sustain a diverse cultural life. Then it must be said that people in the cultural industry are not always very good at getting people to think that they are important. That they contribute to society with something precious. In the face of the reasonably populist criticism from the “Sløseriombudsmannen”, Are Søberg, Norwegian performing artists mostly refused to enter into a discussion where they had to defend that they received public funds. Many artists and the cultural work are not happy to talk about the useful value of art. But this is probably a discussion that you cannot rise above for very long, especially not in tight times where all sectors are forced to cut. BIG CAMP FIRE: “Maskorama” is one of the most popular entertainment programs on TV, here by Margaret Berger and “Gladfisken”. Photo: Espen Solli / Monster/news But perhaps this debate is also a bit about how we look at our campfires. For all art experiences, whether we receive them in a cinema hall or on the sofa or as readers of the same book, there is a campfire. They can be deeply personal, but it is also something we share with the others who have read the same book, seen the same film. These campfires can be large or small. They can be huge, like what “you really want to see”, according to TV 2. These are the very broadest programmes, the Saturday entertainment. They create excitement for the family on the sofa. Can the former Olympic winner run longer? How does the influencer cope with having to chop wood in the gray clearing? Who is behind the mask? They give them something to talk about afterwards, at school and at work. Kudos to them for that. But these cultural experiences, the broadest and most accessible of all, are also very general. They should be easy for viewers of all ages and from all backgrounds to get hooked on. As a result, they quickly become somewhat impersonal. INSPIRED BY THE TV series: The masks from the Spanish series “Papirhuset” were used, among other things, during a Halloween spectacle in Tokyo. Photo: AFP Whoever has to name the cultural experience that has meant the most to them might not want to point to Maskorama, The Farm or Master of Masters. Perhaps they would rather think about the song they put on when they are alone in the car. The movie that gave them goosebumps when they were eighteen. The book they read to the five-year-old on the bed. Perhaps there was something unusually entertaining, something that absorbed them completely. Perhaps it was a work of art that gripped them, stretched them, made them look at life or the world in different ways than before. Maybe something was doing all this. The other campfires, the ones that aren’t the biggest, can be the ones that smolder the longest. That is why one should be careful not to call for contempt for other people’s taste, whether it is “high” or “low”. We all sit around both small and large campfires. If you laugh at someone else’s campfire, or rage against it, or think it should be put out, others may point to your own next time. It is also an advantage to have an overview for those who want to divide cultural life into the simplified categories of high and low, broad and peculiar. Because what you think is narrow is not always narrow. Like “weird crime series in Spanish”. POPULAR: The Spanish action crime series “Papirhuset” was at one point Netflix’s most-watched non-English-language series. Photo: Everett Collection In 2018, the Spanish crime series “Papirhuset” became Netflix’s most watched non-English language program ever. The streaming giant, which is usually not too generous with releasing figures and viewership statistics, was able to say that 65 million households saw the beginning of the fourth season. As you know, Netflix has also become a heavy player in the Norwegian film industry, because they know that a larger, international audience has become more open to specific narratives from other countries and does not see subtitles as an insurmountable obstacle to the same extent as before. A small fire can grow big. It is not always possible to say which ones it will be. But it can also be used as an argument to be a little careful with the verbal buckets of water. Published 13.12.2024, at 20.49
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