A green eye. A broken heart. A pink skeleton spreading across the floor on a bed of flowers. This summer, the courtyard behind the future Hoxton Oslo has been transformed from being a grey nowhere space to an art destination unlike anywhere else in the world.
Across 1,000 square metres of wall and asphalt murals, some of Norway’s finest graffiti artists have been let loose. Together they have created a color explosion that carries the area’s – but also a true love story forward, into the future.
Oslo’s backyard
Møllergata, where the The Hoxton Oslo is rising, has been the city’s backyard since the 80s – in the truest sense of the word. There the hip hop magazine Kingsize once had its home, alongside skate shops, illegal clubs, the record studio used by the country’s hip hop artists and the can shop that kept the city’s graffiti painters supplied with spray paint.
Today, the whole area is in total transformation. Point your compass toward The Hoxton’s future lobby, and you’re standing in the centre of what will become Norway’s new government quarter, complete with parkland and a high-end office district. The DEICH cultural centre and photography house Fotografiska both sit at spitting distance. Møllergata is cleaning up its act, and is becoming unrecognizable.
“Marthe Hem spent her whole life as a bridge-builder between different worlds. Unlike many who have tried to curate graffiti, she never tried to tame it.”
From One-Day Event to One of the World’s Most Decorated Graffiti Houses
In 2024, as a nod to the area’s history – and to the hip hop community that once called it home – building owners Møller Eiendom and AB-Invest invited artists to a graffiti jam in the summer of 2024. The plan was simple: one day, 20 writers from the zero-tolerance era and the war on graffiti in the 80s would paint a 60-metre wall into an art passage. But what was meant to last a day ended up turning the building into one of the world’s most decorated graffiti houses. Over 130 writers painted across 58 days. 6,600 square metres were covered, inside and out. Under the direction and artistic lead by the Scandinavian graffiti art curator Marthe Hem, the organic art project Møllergata4ever took shape – and drew international attention as a historic, near-impossible collaboration betweeh opposing forces: independent graffiti artists and commercial landlords. Marthe Hem called the project a trust experiment. Her mantra was simple: be brave enough to give trust, and you get respect and ownership in return. That’s how you build a community.
Marthe Hem spent her whole life as a bridge-builder between different worlds. Unlike many who have tried to curate graffiti, she never tried to tame it. Her success laid in her understanding and respect for its nature, its hierarchy, its codes – and she built bridges between clients, artists, and the audience that fell in love with the result. This could have been the end of the story. As the house was demolished during the autumn 2024, the graffiti palace became a faint memory. But nothing ever really disappears. It just moves on to become something else.
“Following Marthe Hem’s sudden passing in June 2026, the graffiti community behind Møllergata4ever was left in deep grief. But also with something else: a profound wish to honor the person who had meant so much all of them.”
In Her Memory, For Her.
This summer, the story gained a new chapter. Following Marthe Hem’s sudden passing in June 2026, the graffiti community behind Møllergata4ever was left in deep grief. But also with something else: a profound wish to honor the person who had meant so much all of them. By inviting the artists to take over the backyard, the writers were given an opportunity to give something back to their guiding star: every piece painted has helped raise money for a foundation set up in Marthe’s name, one that gives back both to the community she spent her life building bridges for, and to the family she leaves behind. More than 50 writers have left a small piece of their soul on the concrete. Inside, outside, on the ground and on the walls. In the backyard you’ll find everything from wild style to classic style, baroque style to a raw, undecided style that refuses to be defined – but everything is in good, pure and raw graffiti style. A stay with a view to the backyard will never get boring, there is always something new to explore. An entire summer of love and trust painted straight onto the walls. We hope you can feel the love that lies beneath the paint, stroke by stroke, colour by colour. Living alongside you while you’re our guest, woven into the story of our hotel.
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