Architecture for the Nation's Memory

From the personal to the national context, the built environment appears to be central to our memory. The National Gallery occupies a place in the hearts of many Norwegians (Figure 13.1). It is located in the centre of Oslo, close to other national institutions such as the university, the national theatre, the parliament, and the castle. The institution and its architecture date back to the nineteenth century, when Norway struggled to free itself from the union with Sweden, and sought European recognition as a cultured nation. In 2003 the gallery fused with other cultural institutions to form the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design and the permanent exhibition of work from the collection was re-hung in 2005 by the new director. ¹ In 2009 the Norwegian government made the decision to have designed and erected a new museum building to which the institution would move. ² Since 2005 letters to the press in the major newspapers have called for keeping the collection in the gallery and leaving the permanent exhibition as it had been displayed until 2004. My curiosity was aroused by the suggestion that the collection benefits from being displayed in the existing building. Its nineteenth-century design, the cultural intelligentsia argues, lends the art a precious mnemonic function, that would be lost if the collection was to be relocated. Figure 13.1 Front façade of the National Gallery in Oslo, designed by Heinrich Ernst and Adolf Schirmer. The mid section was finished in 1881, the southern wing (left) in 1907, and the northern wing (right) in 1924. Digital video still: Mattias Ekman. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203124574/273725ca-3a9f-4f16-9856-808c88d7e036/content/fig13_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>