Public Art Behind Bars: Governance and Carceral Aesthetics in Sweden and Norway Since the Early 2000s
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines artworks and relational art projects commissioned for carceral spaces—such as security prisons and juvenile detention homes, in Sweden and Norway since the early 2000s. The analysis is grounded in the idea that public art serves as a medium of normalization, a core principle of Nordic penal policy that obliges the state to provide prison conditions that resemble those of society at large. The analysis uses the concept of “restor(y)ing” to examine how prison art engages with governance strategies set to “restore” aspects of life lost through incarceration, while also intervening in the narratives through which prisons are represented to a broader public. This enables a discussion of how the critical potential of public art has been activated, or not, in the state-finance commissions. The article identifies marked differences between the two national contexts: Norway has commissioned permanent prison art more frequently and in greater variety (including long-term collaborative and pedagogical projects) than Sweden. Across the cases, public art is often aligned with the logic of the welfare state prison: art as rehabilitation, as beautification, or as personal reform. Yet the analysis also uncovers instances where public prison art creates spaces for critical reflection on the very conditions of incarceration.
Source: Public Art Dialogue
Author: Oscar Svanelid
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Vetenskapsrådet
OpenAlex ID: W4415628320
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