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Architects: 2050+
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Annar Bjørgli
Text description provided by the architects. 2050+ has designed The Pillars room, a permanent exhibition space within the new National Museum in Oslo, which opened its doors to the public on June 11th. The room will host temporary shows featuring pieces from The Fredriksen Family Collection.
The Pillars does not adhere to the traditional idea of static exhibition space – one in which art is consumed passively. Rather, the room invites the visitor to question the object-to-subject relationship, by unlocking infinite possible configurations, and turning visitors into active and performative agents within the museum’s galleries.
The Pillars is not about staring, but about engaging – and, by engaging, rethinking our role and agency in negotiation with contemporary cultural institutions.
The design by 2050+ adds two systems into the exhibition space: a dynamic colored display wall and a mechanism of tracks for curtains. The display wall is made of pivoting metal panels that run around the perimeter of the room: they can alternatively provide a straight border as well as turn dynamically to form an articulated surface. The curtain track system provides an infrastructure that can rapidly and theatrically change the space, enabling the display of multiple configurations tailored to specific exhibition, performance, or workshop formats.
Adding to these fixed elements, The Pillars room consists of a kit of parts that, once combined, arranged, stacked, and aligned, can generate infinite scenarios: a series of migrant structures allowing the visitor to experience and perceive the art in unexpected and novel manners; locally produced carpets and fabrics dividing and orchestrating the space into more intimate experiences; a series of modular podiums offering various ground layouts and a selection of sitting elements introducing a domestic and informal feeling to the visitor’s experience.
Challenging the distinctive neutrality of a white box, 2050+’s design of The Pillars leans towards the idea of “a tool”: a fully equipped space, capable of supporting a variety of cultural practices. Resembling an experimental theater, the newly-designed space will act as a testing ground for new exhibition formats and curatorial strategies, constantly morphing and adapting its identity in a productive and stimulating dialogue with the new National Museum of Norway.
