Queen Sonja has opened the new museum building “The Twist” outside Oslo with Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark also present during the opening. Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Frederik got a tour with investor Christen Sveaas of the new building which is located at the Kistefos Museum. The reason why also Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark was present was that the architect behind the unique building is the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
The new building, “The Twist”, is a sixty meter long bridge that crosses the Rand River. The sculpture park at the industrial museum at Kistefossen was opened twenty years ago and now the new museum building is complete. The special building has cost 200 million Norwegian crowns and has been created by a joint team of private contributors and the public. The financier Christen Sveaas has paid more than 120 million crowns to complete the new museum building. “The building will enable us to develop the work of leading contemporary artists,” Sveaas told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
Queen Sonja gave a speech where she said: “This building is a unique attraction at the Kistefos Museum, I am sure it will attract more people”. It was Queen Sonja together with Crown Prince Frederik, who cut the ribbon to mark the officially opening.
In addition, Norway’s prime minister, minister of finance and minister of culture were present during the grand opening. More than 500 guests were invited to the opening. The brand new building is one thousand square meters and will house temporary art exhibitions and performances as well as disseminate industrial history. Earlier this year, the British newspaper The Telegraph put the building on its list of the most beautiful buildings in the world to open in 2019.
Kistefos Museum was originally a wood-factory. In addition to the factory, the property consisted of a large forest. When the factory was closed the old buildings were turned into an art gallery and a sculpture park. This happened in 1996. The Kistefos Museum Foundation came into existence with gifts from Christen Sveaas and Jevnaker Municipality. Christen Sveaas also has a significant collection of recent sculptures placed in the Kistefos Museum’s sculpture park, and the Kistefos Museum hosts an art exhibition every summer in one of the buildings. With this new building, “The Twist”, the museum can also open in the winter.
