Go Time Travelling with Kunsten

1972 was all about bell-bottom trousers, Bowie topping the charts, revolutionary frozen peas and a new, young monarch on the Danish throne. In North Jutland it was also the year that witnessed the opening of an iconic building – a building that heralded the advent of culture with a capital ‘C’ in the working-class city of Aalborg: Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum.

“Walking through the large, bright rooms is like walking inside a sculpture, where the space is perpetually changing, automatically luring you around on a voyage of discovery.”

This is how one critic described the brand new museum in 1972. In this setting, visitors could explore an exhibition that featured a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection. In the ever-changing natural light, amidst linen-clad walls and marble, and on light-grey floor carpets, they could take in exciting works by modern Danish and international artists such as Asger Jorn, Richard Mortensen, Else Alfelt, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Pablo Picasso, Lynn Chadwick, Le Corbusier, Max Ernst – to name but a few.

Now, 50 years later, the museum has changed its name to ‘Kunsten’ and the collection now contains around 4,000 works. The museum is now presenting its most significant works in a brand new exhibition: Kunsten Retro . At the same time, the museum’s entire collection will become available digitally to everyone, and people can even create their own little online collections.

From linen walls to high-tech

Kunsten Retro will give visitors a taste of what it was like 50 years ago. It will recreate the entire architecture of the 1972 exhibition, including the distinctive linen wall covering, and present a new selection of works from Kunsten’s collection in this nostalgic setting. Today that collection spans 100 years of art history.

“The exhibition environment in the physical galleries is exactly the same, but naturally the exhibition will reflect the fact that our collection has evolved radically over the years. The exhibition features classics that were also part of the 1972 exhibition, less frequently-seen works and some brand new acquisitions: from Vilhelm Lundstrøm’s radical packing box picture (1919), the highly imaginative paintings of the CoBrA artists and the ground-breaking art of the 1960s to the more recent contemporary works that have been incorporated into Kunsten’s collection in recent years,” says Caroline Nymark Zachariassen, Curator and Head of Collection at Kunsten.

Kunsten’s Head of Learning, Peter Juul adds:
“We are playing with and reviving the 1972 approaches to interpretation and audience engagement. For example, we are printing an exhibition newspaper, as they did back then. We may be going totally retro and using next to no presentation elements in the exhibition, but of course we will still be using modern effects in other ways. Today, art and creativity are for everyone. So, there will be a range of attractions and activities, encouraging both adults and children to explore the works, the collection and the exhibition. For example, there will be creative activity zones where guests can experiment. The exhibition is all manual and retro. The lower floor is digital. We hope that the interpretation/public engagement activities will enhance the museum experience for visitors of all ages,” he says.

The democratisation of art

At the same time, the museum will be launching Kunsten Collection, which will provide members of the public with online access to all the works in the museum’s collection.

“Most of the time, museums’ collections are hidden away in large, high-security buildings. We firmly believe that our thousands of works should be easily accessible to everyone. It represents a democratisation of the collection. Of course, the museum should be a place where visitors can enjoy art with all their senses, but the digital space presents so many possibilities both before and after they visit the museum. I’m really proud of the fact that we are now one of the few museums in Denmark to have a fully accessible collection, out of which anyone can create their own personal collection – even featuring works that are not on display in the physical galleries,” says Lasse Andersson.

Kunsten Retro and Kunsten Collection open on 23 September 2022 and are funded by Sydbank Fonden, Gudrun og Palle Mørchs Mindefond, Samsung & Fritz Hansen. 

For press service, please contact:
Mette Kirstine Goddiksen, journalist at Kunsten, tel. +45 31 99 41 03 or mkg@kunsten.dk