Language: English
The Sky Room has limited capacity so allow extra time if you want to use the changing room, large bags, food and drinks must be left behind. We recommend arriving early to secure a place.
Please note that the event will be streamed. Ask for directions to seats outside the area being filmed if you wish.
The conversation is streamed live here.
Through the series Museum Talks, MUNCH invites key practitioners in the field, who are rethinking the role of the museum, to bring their unique perspectives to Oslo.
We ask:
How can art museums be relevant public arenas for discussion? How can we contribute meaningfully to the artistic ecosystem? How can large-scale institutions operate sustainably with transparency and kindness? How can we include marginalized groups and develop new voices? What is the role of the curatorial in museums, and how can we nurture experimentation whilst retaining long-term research perspectives?
Art museums are part of an ecosystem of smaller and mid-size art institutions, galleries, and individual artists and practitioners. In Norway, a number of museums were consolidated after the government’s museum reform of 2003. That meant more power and financial resources distributed across fewer institutions. This has strengthened the economy of some museums, but it has also entailed shifts in power dynamics, greater bureaucracy, and expectations of higher visitor numbers.
Since the move from Tøyen to Bjørvika, MUNCH has wanted to challenge what a museum can be. The contemporary art project Munchmuseet on the Move (2015–2020) formed a bridge between the old and the new museum. It was collaborative and inspired by the artist-initiated Prosjekt i Gamlebyen (PiG) from 1994. As a two-year-old institution on the waterfront of Bjørvika, with a greater mandate from the City of Oslo, it is more important than ever to discuss the role of the museum. MUNCH would like to continue to acknowledge and support the crucial work of promoting art in the city and provide artists with the opportunity to develop new projects. MUNCH sees that the precarious studio situation in Oslo is a major challenge for the possibilities for artists to live and work in the city.
Several institutions in Oslo have contributed to the programming, including UKS – the Young Artists’ Association, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Oslo Kunstforening, Nitja, Fotogalleriet, Podium, Kunstnernes Hus and The Norwegian Association of Curators.
Legacy Russell’s visit to Oslo is part of a collaboration with the Norwegian Critics’ Association and the Art Academy/KHiO.
Legacy Russell is a curator and writer. Born and raised in New York City, she is the Executive Director & Chief Curator of the experimental arts institution The Kitchen. Her academic, curatorial, and creative work focuses on gender, performance, digital selfdom, internet idolatry, and new media ritual. She is the recipient of the Thoma Foundation 2019 Arts Writing Award in Digital Art, a 2020 Rauschenberg Residency Fellow, a recipient of the 2021 Creative Capital Award, a 2022 Pompeii Commitment Digital Fellow, a 2023 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow, and a 2024-25 Lunder Institute for American Art Fellow. Her first book is Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (2020). Her second book is BLACK MEME (2024).
Tone Hansen (b. 1970, Kirkenes, Norway/Sápmi) has been director of MUNCH since October 2022. She is the former director of Henie Onstad Art Centre (2011–2022). Here, she led a comprehensive rehabilitation of the 1960s building and established a strong artistic profile with an extensive live programme, topical thematic group exhibitions, and important solo presentations. Hansen was an operative chair of UKS – the Young Artists’ Association from 2003 to 2005. From 2016 to 2019, she was the leader of the Norwegian Arts Council. She has been chair of the board of Posten Moderne, a new private museum in Trondheim, which opens in 2025.
