Norway opens new $650 million national art museum complex in Oslo

OSLO, June 7 (Reuters) – Norway will open its new $650 million Nationwide Museum to the general public on Saturday, unveiling an enormous everlasting exhibition of artwork by way of the ages that places it on a par with among the world’s biggest museums.

Designed by German architect Klaus Schuwerk, the massive, boxy constructing advanced on the Oslo waterfront took eight years to finish and brings collectively the collections of 5 Norwegian artwork and design museums beneath one roof.

With 13,000 sq. meters of exhibition house and 6,500 artworks completely on show, together with Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, the museum would be the largest within the Nordic international locations and in the identical league because the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, or the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Constructed with supplies supposed to final for hundreds of years, the museum’s buildings are decked in blue-grey native slate and topped with a translucent Gentle Corridor which is roofed in glass and marble.

The corridor will probably be used for non permanent exhibitions, and kicks off with “I Name It Artwork” which options works by artists presently working in Norway on themes of identification, belonging, nationality and democracy.

“It is incredible to work in an area the place you may have the likelihood to make any form of exhibitions – hanging stuff from the ceilings, construct and use all the weather,” stated Stina Hoegkvist, the museum’s director of exhibitions and collections.

The museum’s deliberate exhibits embrace exhibitions of works by U.S. summary painter Mark Rothko and Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, each in 2024.

Designed to maximise vitality effectivity and minimise greenhouse emissions, the museum is heated and cooled by water from the Oslo fjord on its doorstep.

“It’s monumental and delightful but additionally discreet and intimate on the identical time,” the museum’s director, Karin Hindsbo informed Reuters.

The museum has been the topic of some controversy after the undertaking suffered delays and wanted authorities help when it ran out of money. It was initially meant to open in 2020.

The design has been criticised for its “blocklike” construction and the of ‘schist’, a striped gray Norwegian slate, to cowl the facade.

“There was a whole lot of debate, however that’s the way it’s purported to be,” Hindsbo stated.

($1 = 9.4725 Norwegian crowns)

Reporting by Victoria Klesty
Modifying by Raissa Kasolowsky

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