Kristiansand’s new Kunstsilo, with the Tangen collection, puts the city on the map – Dagsavisen

KRISTIANSAND (Dagsavisen): It is very easy to mobilize a lot of enthusiasm for Kunstsilo. It is a spectacular building that will excite the whole world. In the meeting with the beautiful interior, the heated debate that divided Kristiansand before the municipal elections in 2019 seems strange and incomprehensible. The conflict is history anyway. The uncompromising resistance has been replaced by positive reports in the international press: There were more foreign than Norwegian journalists during the press screening on Wednesday.

The management expects huge numbers of visitors. The expectation can be explained by a director, Reidar Fuglestad, who was brought in from the audience magnet Dyreparken and a chairman, Stein Olav Henrichsen, who was director of the Munch Museum when they increased the number of visitors from 100,000 to 1.4 million after moving into Bjørvika in 2021. The expectations are unrealistic, say people with a more sober understanding of reality.

The idea is that Kunstsiloen’s architectural qualities will make Kristiansand an international travel destination. Architecture tourism is a growing trend, and the building has such spectacular qualities that many will certainly be tempted to make the trip. The art silo is an angular but beautiful building. The interior is spectacular, and the restaurant on the ninth floor has a fantastic view. The art is also good. The location on the edge of the wharf on Odderøya, next to the characteristically undulating facade of the Kilden cultural center, gives the building a central position in Kristiansand’s self-image – even though the museum building is on the outskirts of the city centre. Locally, the strait the museum is located on is called “Timanni”, after the time when it was a military area and ten men were ordered to jump into the sea at the same time.

Chairman Henrichsen believes that the architecture and the museum are “absolutely world class”. The dazzling white facade is great enough, but it’s when you get into the core of the old silo that the wow experience comes crashing down on you. It is 21 meters below the ceiling in the central hall. It is carved out of the circular silo tubes, and the construction with its bare concrete arches appears spectacularly beautiful. Concrete tends to produce bad sound and a harsh sound, but the curved walls give the interior pleasant acoustics.

The experience of the silo hall is so powerful that many will think they are in a cathedral. The Spanish-Norwegian firm Mestres Wåge Arquitectes has created an architecture that can be compared to the Turbinhallen in Tate Modern in London. Of recent Norwegian museum examples, it is natural to compare with the Munch Museum. The Oslo Museum’s architecture does not reach the Art Silo’s knees, neither inside nor outside. The interiors in Kunstsilo have beautiful details, nice room flow and good sizes that are perfectly suited for the purpose.

Kunstsilo has cost NOK 710 million to build. 200 million comes from oil fund manager Nicolai Tangen’s foundation. He has built up a fortune in the billions as head of the hedge fund AKO Capital in London. In 2015, Tangen announced that he was giving away his art collection to his hometown of Kristiansand. At the same time, he suggested that the award-winning grain silo could be converted into an art museum. In 2016, the municipality allocated NOK 50 million to the building project, at the same time that Tangen and AKO Kunststiftelse gave perpetual right of disposal of the collection to the museum. In 2018, the municipal cultural foundation Cultiva granted 100 million for the building. It ignited the debate.

Local voices believed that Tangen should pay a larger part of the construction sum. The uproar over the Art Silo culminated in 2019. The debate tore the city apart, and the 2019 municipal election was a disaster for the traditionally leading parties. Kunstsilo was originally supposed to open in autumn 2022, but the pandemic and the war in Ukraine put a damper on things. The delay is due, among other things, to a Ukrainian steel supplier.

Tangen’s collection numbers 5,500 works of art. In addition, there are just over 2,000 works in the museum’s two other collections. The Tangen collection has multiplied since 2015, and its value is estimated at several hundred million. The financial value is in addition to the 200 million Tangen’s foundation has invested in the construction process. Nicolai Tangen says to Dagsavisen that he has already bought significant works of art for millions, and that they will be added to the foundation in due course. So the collection will increase. The three collections make Kunstsilo an important museum in a Nordic context. Internationally, it is more debatable.

The question is whether spectacular architecture is enough to entice more than the most eager from the rest of the world – or the rest of the country, for that matter. There are not many international flights from Kristiansand Airport. The current situation is, according to various sources, that most people who arrive by ferry go straight on to Setesdal or the fjords in Western Norway. The hope is that Kunstsilo will make people stay in the southern capital for a few more days. If it succeeds, Kvadraturen and Dyreparken with Kaptein Sabeltann will no longer be Kristiansand’s only tourist attractions.

If people are to travel here and spend the night, Kunstsilo must create and show exhibitions that are noticed internationally. It is not appropriate to continue the exhibition program that the old SKMU / Sørlandets art museum had. The merger with Nicolai Tangen’s art collection in 2015 and the move to the old silo in 1935 must lead to a significant increase in the quality of the exhibitions.

When the initial interest has subsided, architectural experiences must be replaced by art experiences. The idea is that the Tangen collection will ensure that. The question is whether it can do it. 5,500 works of art make it the world’s largest collection of Nordic modernism. There is a lot of good art. But that doesn’t mean much, because the collection is devoid of artists who are known outside the Nordic countries. Many of them are quite unknown even in the Nordic context. Apart from Edvard Munch (who is not included), very few Nordic artists in the top tier are considered to have shaped Western art history.

With such a starting point, you become completely dependent on being able to borrow works of art that an international audience wants to see. Much and long-term work remains to make the Tangen collection’s art and artists known enough to attract more than the local audience. One thing Kunstsilo has started with is a solid investment in digital tools, so-called “immersive” communication production. The animation of Reidar Aulie’s painting “Tivoli” (1935) is large and impressive, but the quality is so-so. The museum might as well start by strengthening and displaying the other two collections. There are, among other things, lots of good handicrafts.

Kunstsilo is worth a trip. At the same time, the museum faces a crossroads when managing director Fuglestad steps down in the new year. He has not replaced the artistic director, more than a year after he left. The commercial aspects of museum operations are solidly covered, but the art part is without competent management. Chairman Stein Olav Henrichsen announces that a new director will be appointed in September, so there is good reason to follow along.