Kunstsilo museum is an architectural gem situated on the picturesque peninsula of Odderøya in Kristiansand, a town and port in Western Norway situated on three tiny coastal islets facing the Norwegian Sea. Kunstsilo opened in May 2024 as a temple of modernist and Norwegian art and houses The Tangen Collection, the world’s largest collection of Nordic modernist art comprised of more than 5,500 artworks.
Mestres Wage Arquitectes, BAX and Mendoza Partida undertook the mammoth task of transforming a former grain silo designed in 1935 by Architects Arne Korsmo and Sverre Aasland, into an 8,500 square foot cultural venue with panoramic views of the stunning Odderøya coastline. Kunstsilo’s brutalist architecture, gargantuan scale and unique position on the Odderøya peninsula combine to create the aesthetic of a Nordic Tate Modern. For the first time the Southern Norway Art Museum and Tangen Collection of Nordic art are merged in the form of Kunstsilo’s permanent collections.
Culturalee visited Kunstsilo for the preview of a major solo exhibition by Norwegian Photographer Mette Tronvoll. TIME Mette Tronvoll is at Kunstsilo until 25th May, 2025.
Mette Tronvoll is exhibiting an entirely new body of work alongside a curated selection of her earlier pieces.The centerpiece of the exhibition is Tronvoll’s latest series, inspired by Hidra, a picturesque island off the coast of Flekkefjord in Southern Norway. Over the past two years, Tronvoll has revisited the island repeatedly to create photographs that capture its coastal culture, landscapes, and the profound transformations experienced by its community. Tronvoll is renowned for her commitment to analog color photography, an approach that demands meticulous craftsmanship. Collaborating with master printers like Dagmar Miethke in Düsseldorf and Barbara Thiel in Berlin, she produces large-format prints that exemplify her dedication to the medium.
At the heart of the exhibition Time are brand new works by the renowned Norwegian photographer Mette Tronvoll (b. 1965). The photographs have been created over the past two years, through repeated visits to the island of Hidra off the coast of Flekkefjord in Southern Norway. The exhibition presents these entirely new works alongside a selection of Tronvoll’s earlier photographs.
Also on display at Kunstsilo is Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto: Playing with Fire (until 2nd March, 2025). For the first time, the British artist Edmund de Waal is presented in Norway. Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto is the first major exhibition of Danish master ceramicist Axel Salto, curated by acclaimed British artist and writer Edmund de Waal.
Edmund de Waal takes on a dual role of artist and curator, showcasing his works alongside those of celebrated Danish ceramic artist Axel Salto. Playing with Fire is the inaugural international collaboration of Kunstsilo and brings together Kunstsilo Museum with Edmund de Waal, the CLAY Keramikmuseum in Denmark, and The Hepworth Wakefield in England where the exhibition will tour to later in 2025.
Playing with Fire is De Waal’s debut exhibition as artist and curator and showcases a significant number of Salto’s ceramics belonging to Kunstsilo’s Tangen Collection and the collection of CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art in Denmark, which are displayed alongside lesser-known and previously unseen works on paper, illustrations, writings and textiles. One of the exhibition highlights is a major new de Waal installation through which the artist reflects on Salto’s enduring influence on his own practice.
Edmund de Waal (b. 1964, Nottingham, England) is internationally recognised for his best-selling books and large-scale installations of porcelain vessels. His ceramic art combines artistry with a deep understanding of culture and history. His best known literary work is the award-winning The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010).
Axel Salto (1889 – 1961, Copenhagen, Denmark) is considered one of the greatest masters of 20th century ceramic art. A radical polymath, his artistic practice covered several disciplines including ceramics, painting, woodcuts, drawing, book illustration, and textiles. Salto started out in the 1920s and made a name for himself with organic and abstract forms, becoming an important figure in Danish ceramics. He drew inspiration from nature and metamorphoses and developed a unique technique for creating glazed surfaces with intricate and powerful texture.
De Waal’s expertise as a practicing ceramicist informs his curation of Playing with Fire, enabling him to curate a more nuanced exhibition exploring the interplay between his own contemporary ceramics and iconic ceramics by Salto. This playful and intellectual interaction between De Waal and Salto’s works offers a fresh perspective on both artists and their important contributions to the art of ceramics.
Other exhibitions currently on display at Kunstsilo are Sentinel Self, by Sissel Marie Tonn (until 9th March, 2025), Nordic Ocean Series by Marpi Studio (until 9th March, 2025) and the Sparebanken Sør Artist Award (until 16th March, 2025).
Sissel Marie Tonn’s The Sentinel Self explores the connections between the human body and ocean ecosystems, where microplastics invade both the external environment and our own immune systems. Through interactive simulations of cell-like organisms, the audience experiences an ever-changing world where pollution threatens the balance. The installation is part of the exhibition Ocean Deep, where the second part takes places on the second floor in S-Lab.
In the Nordic Ocean Series, the audience is invited into a digital universe filled with futuristic and organic ocean creatures, where vibrant colors and dynamic projections visualize the fragile yet magnificent world underwater. The work unfolds in the S-Lab, a space that transforms into a kind of reverse aquarium where the audience can interact with fascinating beings.
The Sparebanken Sør Artist Award is presented every other year to an artist under the age of 35 with a connection to the Agder region. The nominated artists are selected by a regional nomination committee and have the opportunity to showcase their work in an exhibition at Kunstsilo.
The nominees for this year’s award are Finn Adrian Jorkjen (b. 1990, Arendal), Olaf Tønnesland Hodne (b. 1990, Evje og Hornes), Andreas Lian (b. 1991, Kristiansand), and Ingrid Bjørnaali (b. 1991, Kristiansand). Together, they represent a wide range of contemporary artistic practices in terms of the content they work with, their working process and with the use of different types of media and materials, from sculpture, woodcut, and jewelry art to animation video, installation, text and performance.
Find more information on Kunstsilo’s exhibition programme here.
