Take a walk or take the kids on a little treasure hunt and check out the street art in our city. Here you will find graffiti art created by artists from all over the world. You may have to look a bit to find them, but all around the center of Mo i Rana you will find exciting works of art. Some you can’t avoid seeing, others requires a treasure hunt to discover.
Vikabandet
On Vikabandet above the entrance to Mo i Rana when you come from the north, you can’t help but spot a colorful group. The figures are a long series of improvisations and are inspired by Mo i Rana’s collective impressions. Please note that the figures in the artwork are embraced by the purple figure in the middle called Mor i Rana. Some of the figures also show a thumbs up – a salute back to the locals from the artist Øivin Horvei, who received countless thumbs up when he worked on the artwork. The entire artwork is invented along the way and improvised. Horvei started with a figure and then worked his way across the band. The art was made as part of a collaboration with Street art Oslo.
The artist’s Instagram account: @oivin_horvei
Amfi wall towards Mo i Rana station
When your train rolls into Mo i Rana station, this is the first thing you see. When you drive or walk past, you can’t help but notice this – the colourful, the exciting, the diversity and the forward-looking, that illustrates Mo i Rana in an excellent way. It is the artist Marques, better known as M.u.M, who is behind this work of art, which contains many exciting details. Marques is a graffiti artist and graphic designer, and is very inspired by nature and the fantasy world. The art was made as part of a collaboration with Street art Oslo.
Artist’s Instagram account: @_M.u.M_
The wall at Rust wine bar
If you come up the main street towards Nytorget, you will see this beautiful and expressive picture – it is around 16 meters high, created by Eva Hansen Sjøvold, a young local artist who has left a beautiful fingerprint on the city. The art gives a look back at Rana’s history and perhaps also a point forward. The reference images the artist has used are from Jernverket. Then it is up to you to interpret which stories you see in this giant wall picture with many colors and facets.
The art was made as part of a collaboration with Street art Oslo.
The artist’s Instagram account: @eva_h_sjoevold
The parking garage at AMFI
In the parking garage at AMFI you can find several small works of art and illustrations. This is called “Paste Up”. In the Street Art environment, there are networks that hang up art for each other. The artist paints on paper, then you can send it in the post and get others to hang it up. Around Mo i Rana, in addition to the artworks in the car park, there are several “Paste Ups” hanging and adorning what were previously just walls in the center – there will be a total of 13 pieces around the city.
Photo by Iselin Breirem
Town hall steps and Mo community center
In Mo i Rana you can see a polar bear cycling down the town hall steps. The Rana cultural school has helped to decorate the city with street art, and the mentioned polar bear in particular has become a beloved figure in the cityscape. Art helps to give us identity and cohesion, and it is inspiring and surprising to come across it in the cityscape – the cycling polar bear and the other works of art, add creativity and creative power to the society. Once up the stairs and a little further on, cultural school students have sculpted masks at the community center.
The artist’s Instagram account: @ranakulturskole
The underpass
Havmannen has got a lady, have you seen her? Pupils at Rana cultural school are behind the street art in “the underpass of love” from the center towards Havmannen. Here you will find, among other things, Havmannens girlfriend, called Blomsterpiken. The flower girl was created by Eva Hansen Sjøvold (she who decorated the wall at Rust). The cultural school has created the art together with artistic director and visual teacher Yvonne Rosten, and makes the stroll an experience.
The artist’s Instagram account: @ranakulturskole / @yvonnerostenart / @eva_h_sjoevold
Photo by Kristoffer Møllevik / Visit Helgeland
Polarsirkelen high school
At Polarsirkelen high school in Mjølan, there is art that people can enjoy in everyday life, whether you go to school or not. Outdoors, artist Viel Bjerkeset Andersen has been inspired by a mountain ridge, the last remaining piece of rough nature within the school’s grounds. In the work, which was named Nyken, the sculptural object is cast in concrete, and has become part of and adapted to the formations in the mountain. Here, there are clearly defined seating areas with built-in heating, which invite you to sit down. The sculpture is intended as a place to pause, where not much needs to happen, but a place of refuge. Nyken has become a place where students can gather, stand a bit on the edge, look out, send their dreams on and prepare to fly on in life. Are you ready for it?
The artist’s Instagram account: @vielandersen
Have an artistic treasure hunt!