Justification and Art

After some 15 years of construction, the natural sciences building at the University of Iceland was opened 2 years ago.  We moved in and instantly saw that the building was not designed for usage but for appearance.  There are 5 room that are suitable for lectures (although 2 will only accommodate about 25 students).  There is also one room filled by a massive discussion table that the architect will not allow us to replace with something we can use.  There are 6 exterior doors in the building.  Three are kept locked for security reasons, apparently, and we were this past Spring allowed to apply for key cards to be able to use them.  One is an emergency exit but seems to be always locked.  The other two are the main entrances and they are located on each end of the 200m long building. These doors blow open whenever the wind is strong enough to bend grass...which happens weekly.  So, half the time, there is only one entryway into the building that is not locked.  Good design!  When the school agreed to the drawings there was no computer lab in the drawings.  There was no library, for that matter.  Now there are several hundred students going to school there daily as well as all the professors and a handful of building staff.  For all of these people there are fewer than 70 places to sit in the building outside of lecture halls, the improvised library (which was stuck in a little corner of the building above the cafeteria), and the laboratories.  The majority of the building is wasted space opening from the first floor up to above the third floor.  The balconies bounce when someone walks passed.  The slanted curving glass wall/ceiling cost more than all of the books in the building.  Continuing education students are crammed into corners struggling for the space they need to accomplish their studies.
But the building is considered cool to look at by a majority of those in control.  That is, those who don’t use the building.  From the first time I got in there my impression has been that the building would make a pretty good art gallery or museum.  Or maybe an office building.  That impression was proven yesterday when i walked in and saw that an art exhibit is being installed there.  The following are some pictures of some of the pieces and some of my comments about them.  
The show is going up so that Halldór Ásgrímsson can stand around and have his picture taken while he and his oafish followers and suck-ups are seen “patronizing the arts” as though they give a Tinker’s cuss about creativity or cultural development. One thing’s for sure, I won’t show up there for that scene.  I had thought that by moving to Iceland I was moving away from a nation who votes for leaders based on popularity contests instead of actual thought and consideration of the issues.  The last elections proved me very wrong.  But Iceland is still not controlled by unjustifiable fear the way the US is, so we still come out on top even if our politics are based on the same brainless mudslinging!