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 this series, 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.
Annie Fletcher is currently Director of IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art). Previously she was Chief Curator at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and a tutor at de Appel, Amsterdam, the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and the Design Academy Eindhoven. She was co-founder and co-director of the rolling curatorial platform If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution with Frederique Bergholtz and Tanja Elstgeest (2005-10).
In 2012, she was Curator of Ireland’s Contemporary Art biennale EVA International and is regularly called upon to sit on International juries, including the 2019 Preis der Nationalgalerie, Berlin; the 2016 Irish Pavilion at Venice; the 2015 Köler Prize, Estonia; the 2014 Turner Prize, UK; the 2013 Leopold Bloom Art Award, Hungary; and the 2011 BC21 Art Award, Austria.
Tone Hansen was appointed as director of MUNCH in October 2022. Under her leadership, the museum has further developed its extensive exhibition programme, offering new approaches to the museum's three artistic areas of focus: the work of Edvard Munch, modernism, and contemporary art. Recent exhibitions include “Alice Neel: Every Person is a New Universe,” “Goya and Munch. Modern Prophecies,” “Corpus Infinitum” with Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva, and “Trembling Earth.”
From 2011 to 2022 Hansen was the director of the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Here, she was responsible for a comprehensive rehabilitation of the building and the establishment of an exhibition program including well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Niki de Saint Phalle, Marc Chagall, Yayoi Kusama and Nikolai Astrup, Sami artist Nils Aslak Valkeapä, and the graphic artist and feminist icon Zdenka Rusova, as well as group exhibitions such as “We are Living on a Star” and “Every Moment Counts- AIDSand its feelings”. The diverse and cross-disciplinary programme drew on different perspectives, avant-garde and contemporary approaches. She is the editor of several anthologies and artist monographs.
From 2016 to 2019, Hansen was chair of the Arts Council Norway. She chaired the board of PoMo - Posten Moderne museum in Trondheim until mid-2023, and has held several other board positions in Scandinavia. Hansen was educated at the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo (1994–1998) and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts as a scholar (equivalent to a PhD) from 2003 to 2009. Hansen was born in 1970 in Kirkenes (Norway/Sápmi), grew up in Klæbu (now Trondheim), and currently resides in Oslo.
Picture Credit: Fergal Phillips
