Views - Norway seen from the road 1733-2020

The exhibition adopts the perspective of a traveller on the road to trace connections between historical and contemporary perceptions of Norway’s nature and landscapes. Models from Peter Zumthor’s project for a zinc mine museum at Allmannajuvet and Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk’s model for the Vøringsfossen falls project are on show in the museum’s main pavilion, while the adjacent exhibition hall houses sets of historical maps, photographs, prints and drawings, as well as contemporary works of photography, film and architecture. 

With its National Tourist Routes project, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has over the past few years developed and implemented a number of small and large-scale projects along designated tourist routes in Norway. New lay-bys, stopping places and vantage points arrange and enhance the experience of nature and the cultural landscape for travellers on the road. The idea of organising roads, routes and stopping places – both to manage risks presented by dramatic terrain and to define points along the road where travellers can experience beautiful and sublime views – can be placed in a 300-year-old tradition in Norway.

Hazardous stretches of road and magnificent scenery were documented when Christian VI, King of Denmark and Norway, inspected his territory in 1733. Since then, photographers, painters and tourists have depicted Norway’s roads, fjords, precipices and mountain peaks. In these contexts, Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk’s studies of bridge constructions over the iconic tourist attraction Vøringsfossen falls and Peter Zumthor’s project for a zinc mine museum at Allmannajuvet can be seen as surprising breaks from a tradition of staged views, both in terms of form and content. At the same time, these projects continue a tradition for curating the Norwegian landscape.

The exhibition is a collaboration between National Tourist Routes, an initiative of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the research project Routes, Roads and Landscapes at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and the National Museum.

Curators: Nina Berre, Nina Frang Høyum, Janike Kampevold Larsen and Knut Wold.

Exhibition architect: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk AS.

The book Views. Norway seen from the road 1733–2020 is published by Press Books in connection with the exhibition. Editors: Nina Frang Høyum and Janike Kampevold Larsen

Contact person: Nina Frang Høyum, Project Manager +47 480 34 852 nina.hoyum@nasjonalmuseet.no