The Vega scene opens today. Oslo has three new cinemas, a theater and a debate room

Now a building of red wine culture is finished after many years of work. But the people of Oslo can thank the students at the nearby Elvebakken High School, so that none of the new buildings in the capital have a gray concrete facade.

"When we had the chance to see the building's plans, we thought it was sad to see a gray and dull colossus become the nearest neighbor.It was fun that we finally realized our desire to change the color of the facade of the building, said the student. Magnus Winther, in VårtOslo almost a year ago.

Received from the Minister of Culture

The busy students of Oslo City Center High School got what they wanted. Now, the city's new shop for the slightly narrower films and theaters has risen off the coast of Akerselva. Not gray and boring, but vinous and inviting.

At the opening ceremony, the Vega theaters are fully exploited, with ten films starting at 12:30 on Saturday and during the evening. And five different plays are already planned in the new cultural building in the future.

But the trip until the beginning of the weekend was long and tumultuous. The last spring, it was a joke for the completion of Vega scene. There was more money. But in the government's proposal for the revised state budget this spring came the Minister of Culture Trine Skei Grande (V) with an additional grant. This ensured the opening of this holy panic.

The Oslo City Council also participated in the financing of Vega and, this weekend, the Council of Culture has exactly one year Rina Mariann Hansen (AP) was in charge of the building block which now opens with three movie galleries, a theater stage and a debate room. In addition, a café will be open in the cultural building.

The death of the film exaggerated

For decades, the death of cinema has been announced. The video was the threat in the 1980s. Then, a forest of TV channels entered the salons of Norwegians and, in recent years, the streaming of movies via the Web has allowed people to access many movies. But the film's death is exaggerated, the message was conveyed during the construction of the Vega scene.

– At first there were video tapes. Then there was digital media and streaming, which, according to many, would be the end of cinema. It's good to stay on the Vega stage today and see that the cinema is still alive and that city-dwellers are now enjoying an exciting new film offer, "said the director. Joachim Trier when the first stone was laid at Hausmannsgate exactly one year ago.

"This is a very exciting project that the left helped to launch when we sat on the Oslo City Council, so it is important for me to ensure that the project is completed as planned," said the Minister. of Culture, Trine Skei Grande (V) in VårtOslo this spring.

Wanted to keep the Hausmania graffiti

"What's happening around Vega Scene is a cultural breakthrough, where a low-level cultural offer will be developed that contrasts with much of what commercial culture gives today," said the Minister of State. Culture.

But behind the history of the Vega scene is hiding the story of Hausmania. The story of cultural activists stemming from alternative cultural projects elsewhere in the city, which occupied in 1999 the state-owned building that stood on the scene site Vega today.

The question is what part of the alternative culture of people who are still present in the new culture building. Students at Elvebakken School are also fighting to preserve some of the alternative of the busy building that has been demolished.

The pupils took part in an interior project and hoped to be able to integrate elements of the old mural to the end of Hausmania culture house.

"It's unfortunate that graffiti on Hausmania is disappearing with development, and we're now hoping that the interior project will be inspired by that," students at Elvebakken told VårtOslo.

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