FRED KOSTER. JA! / THE COST OF PEACE IS HIGH. YES!
Willibald Storn, born in 1936, grew up in a small village in Austria. He describes his childhood as conflicted and dramatic. His father was in Hitler’s army and was killed in 1945. Storn still has vivid memories of the contrast between the beautiful flower meadows outside, and the dark basement where they hid during bomb attacks. He found no security in his mother either, on the contrary: "I became free as a human being the day she threw me out," he says about the time when, as a 14-year-old, he started the journey that eventually led him to Norway.
After a couple of years as a baker's apprentice, Storn read about sailors who set out on the seven seas. He packed his bags, got on the train to Rotterdam, and took a job on a Norwegian-owned ship. The journey went to the United States, the Far East and to several islands in the Pacific Ocean, such as Tahiti and Easter Island, where he found the inspiration that we later recognize in his art production in the form of a playful, experimental and searching style. From 1957 to 1960, Storn interned at Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole, as well as initiated the artist collective GRAS (1969-73), with members such as Per Kleiva, Siri Aurdal, Anders Kjær, and Morten Krohg. In addition to their large art production, mainly in silk screen printing, they stood on the barricades in the early 1970s in demonstrations against, for example, the Vietnam War.
Social criticism, humor and eroticism characterise much of Willibald Storn's art. He has often been one of the few critical voices where everyone else has been enthusiastic, as when he pointed out the close ties between artists, art critics and the power of capital during an art critics' congress at the Henie Onstad Art Centre (1969) using posters reading “Artists are the lapdog of the critics”. Throughout his career, he has tirelessly drawn our attention to threats such as fascism, religious fanaticism, the consumer society and environmental destruction. He freely uses the means he deems necessary to attract attention and get his message across. One of these tools is nudity – not portrayed as something exalted and timeless, but also not exclusively as a shock effect. He himself links nudity to vulnerability and giving your all. The unfiltered, insistent approach has aroused both recognition and opposition. On the one hand, he has not always made it easy for himself when it comes to strategic choices in his artistic career, while on the other hand, it is precisely these qualities that give the artworks credibility and weight. Storn works in photography, drawing, painting, collages and installations, and today several of his works can be found in collections such as Preus Fotomuseum and the Tangen collection.
Behind the powerful, and sometimes grotesque or humorous devices, there lies in Storn a sincere love for humanity and nature. Closely intertwined with love, is his sorrow and frustration at the ignorance and destructive forces of human beings, which throughout the ages seem to destroy large parts of the unique possibilities that our existence provides. He says that: "We have one chance, we have our wonderful brains, we have love, and then we waste it. I don't understand it." As an artist, Storn has a desire to make a positive impression, and not be cowardly. This is a major driving force, and he currently calls his art production "Farewell from the paradise of madness." In an ongoing photo series, "The Oslo Suite", he compares figures such as “Klimaulven” ("The Climate Wolf") with whistleblowers in a time when democracy is eroding. The wolf may be scary, but it is not the wolf that is dangerous. Storn readily admits that he is both quarrelsome and a romantic, but at the same time points out that the real challenges start the day society lacks committed citizens.