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Bergen’s culture industry is desperate. On Tuesday, the municipality clamped down after the region turned red as a result of increased corona infection. For the next ten days, the audience limit of 200 people should now be limited to 50.
Now-veteran actor and Bergen native Helge Jordal launches into criticism of the city’s crown measures.
– it’s stupid
– Will we suffer again? she tells Dagbladet.
14 cultural workers, led by actor Bjarte Hjelmeland, have now opposed the measures and believe that the culture industry will be subject to unnecessary restrictions.
– hysterical
– It is perceived as absurd that we have to limit the audience to 50 people for ten days. To date, no infection has been detected at cultural events in Bergen, Hjelmeland tells Dagbladet.
Jordal believes that the new measures are more than strict.
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– It may seem a bit hysterical. There are no examples of infection in theater and cinema. We have been doing well, at the same time that we in the cultural industry have suffered the most. It seems we have to pay a high price, he says.
He had not initially received the appeal from Bjarte Hjelmeland.
– I almost wonder why they haven’t invited me to participate. Now I’m turned around, he says humorously and laughs.
– Failure in all stages
Federation leader Hans Ole Rian in Creo, an association for art and culture that organizes 9,500 artists and stage technicians, reacts acutely to the crown’s initiatives in Bergen targeting the city’s art and cultural life .
– Here it has failed in all parts, says Rian to Dagbladet.
– The closure of cultural life in Bergen is not specific, adapted or understandable. But there is no shame in turning around, so my appeal to the Bergen municipality is to turn around in time as soon as possible, he continues.
– Too drastic
Yesterday, Creo, like Bjarte Hjelmeland and other cultural workers from Bergen, sent a letter to the municipal leadership. Rian believes that it is important to be a part of the crown’s charity, but says organized cultural life is under pressure to take a disproportionate share of the burden.
– Going from events with 200 spectators to 50 is too drastic.
– The culture industry has good routes, says Rian.
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Without “cultural contagion”
He notes that so far no one has been infected by the coronavirus under the auspices of serious cultural organizers.
– The public needs access to artistic experiences and cultural activities.
– The municipality of Bergen has not only forgotten to accept that it is an industry and an industry that also lives on ticket revenue. They have also forgotten that this is an industry that also relies on audience expectations that the tickets they buy can actually be used, he says.
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Bergen Municipality Responses
Dagbladet has presented to the municipality of Bergen the criticisms of the mentioned actors. In an email, the Councilor for Culture, Diversity and Gender Equality, Katrine Berg Nødtvedt (ODM), writes that the municipality is introducing the measures based on the “dire situation” and the infection control advice given.
– Experience shows that the risk of spreading the virus is higher when a large proportion of people are in the same place for some time, writes Nødtvedt.
However, it agrees with cultural life on one thing:
– Together we can challenge national health authorities about whether it is not possible to differentiate between, for example, larger and smaller premises. We will continue this in our dialogue with health authorities.
Nødtvedt says that he has had a lot of contact with cultural life through the pandemic and is therefore aware of the desperate situation in which many actors find themselves.
– Society has to defend this industry with specific compensation and support, because they are very vulnerable to restrictions, he concludes.
