2016 In the wake of this process, there were now several 1907 Martin Braathen empty buildings that had once enjoyed great prestige. In 2016, Even Smith Wergeland, Johanne Borthne, Buildings that had explicitly set out to express In 1907, the Norwegian central bank Norges Bank REMOVALS Vilhelm Christensen and I produced a documentary their time and manifest their function in public opened at Bankplassen 4. This was the second of project City of Dislocation, in which we surveyed space – the outcome of high-pro!ile architectural the Norges Bank buildings on Bankplassen. The Martin Braathen is an architect, editor-in-chief, a number of cultural buildings. These were in competitions and high public expectation. One of !irst had been built as a branch when the bank had writer and freelance curator based in Oslo. the process of being evacuated and emptied of these was the 110-year-old building on the square its headquarters in Trondheim, and was given the He writes the story of Bankplassen 4, a site their previous functions. The National Gallery, Bankplassen. address Bankplassen 3. The branch was completed that has housed both Christiania Theater, the Norges Bank, and, until recently, the Museum the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum in 1828 and was designed by the particularly e!!icient of Contemporary Art. of Decorative Arts and Design, the Deichman architect Christian Heinrich Grosch. When Norges Central Library and the Munch Museum were 1990 Bank acquired its headquarters in Christiania in among fourteen cultural institutions, all of which 1897, Bankplassen 3 was too small, and a new, were to be removed from the buildings they had An old-fashioned voice-over accompanied the larger and more prestigious building was needed.2 occupied for many years. These !ive became our TV audience into the newly opened Museum primary objects of study. The project culminated of Contemporary Art in 1990. The public were In Terskel 1, the interior architect Kay Maria in an exhibition and a debate programme under invited into “a large, heavy building, a fortress Staaland wrote about the competition to design the the auspices of the predecessor of Oslobiennalen, that protects what we have collected,” as the building, announced in 1900. It was already clear Oslo Pilot, in the spring of 2016. narrator commented with ambiguous chattiness, from the competition brief that the building also referring to the building’s earlier life as a bank.1 had to provide space for the public, which led to, The aim of the project was not only to show that NRK’s documentary Time, money and art showed among other things, the magni!icent sky-lit hall, the evacuation of high-quality buildings without glimpses of the building work preceding the museum which was later to become the main space in the concrete plans for their use afterwards constituted opening. The concrete, down-to earth functions Museum of Contemporary Art.3 The commission a poor use of resources. It was just as important of the bank building, and the more ephemeral, for the design of a new !lag-ship building for to discuss the fact that these major evacuations high-cultural function of the contemporary art Norges Bank was an attractive one, and a total were happening all at once without a coherent exhibition space were presented as if in opposition of 62 proposals were submitted. The winner of overall plan. The parallel moving processes were to each other. “Walls are painted, chandeliers the competition was the architect Ingvar Olsen never considered together as a whole, and neither removed, windows covered up. Renewal. The building Hjorth, who later went on to design the east wing the urban-developmental, social or economic is nevertheless the same. Will the building also of the National Gallery.4 consequences of this major ‘reshu!!le’ had been be able to exhibit traces of our lives?” came the analysed – although ‘reshu!!le’ is possibly the leading question from the voice-over. As a structure of national importance, the building wrong word, since no direct exchange was involved was to be “Norwegian” and exhibit its national in any case – only the removal of vibrant cultural To mark this new era for contemporary art in identity through the choice of materials, through nodes from various neighbourhoods. Norway, the director Jan Brockmann launched craftsmanship and decoration. Rough-hewn greyish- the new periodical Terskel (‘Threshold’), and the blue bricks of Larvik syenite were used on the The dynamic behind the evacuations was ideological exhibition Terskel 1, mounted for the opening, facade, and the national aspect continues in the and political. Consolidation and concentration manifested many aspects of the newly established interior of the building (with more Norwegian stone make public enterprises more e!!icient, at the institution. As a modern museum, its institutional such as rough-hewn labradorite, among others).5 same time strengthening the city as a tourist self-assurance was important, and the history of The organic lines of the interior announce the destination. The vision of the ‘Fjord City’ included the building and the square was given a prominent arrival of the Art Nouveau style in Norway. a belt of new buildings signalling culture along the place in the magazine. The physical framework of sea front, where the Central Library, the Munch the building itself gave rise to the ‘Threshold’ name, Museum and the combined National Museum were since the stairway to the museum, for historicizing to grace the waterfront along with the Opera. reasons, failed to adhere to the latest ‘universal 2 When the removals had been completed, the Just as the main street Karl Johans gate once design’ principles of accessibility for all. National Archives moved into Bankplassen 3 in 1914. Today took the city centre away from the ‘Quadrature’, the building houses the National Museum – Architecture, after an extensive reprojecting by Sverre Fehn. and before that the Quadrature had created a new focal point, the Fjord City was to establish a 3 Kay Maria Staaland, “Norges Bank – new centre in Oslo. The Fjord City’s consolidation bygningshistorie”, in Terskel 1/1990, p. 211. of economic power in the Barcode project and Aker Brygge, and of cultural power through the 4 Oslo Byleksikon, Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget, 1 Tid, penger og kunst, produced by Stig 2010, p. 206. major art institutions, was important in creating Andersen and Bjørn Engvik, NRK 20.02.1990, accessible a true centre of gravity. at https://tv.nrk.no/program/FSAM08000190. 5 Staaland, 213. AND THEIR SPIRITS LIVE ON 204 205 MARIANNE HEIER 2016 In the wake of this process, there were now several 1907 Martin Braathen empty buildings that had once enjoyed great prestige. In 2016, Even Smith Wergeland, Johanne Borthne, Buildings that had explicitly set out to express In 1907, the Norwegian central bank Norges Bank REMOVALS Vilhelm Christensen and I produced a documentary their time and manifest their function in public opened at Bankplassen 4. This was the second of project City of Dislocation, in which we surveyed space – the outcome of high-pro!ile architectural the Norges Bank buildings on Bankplassen. The Martin Braathen is an architect, editor-in-chief, a number of cultural buildings. These were in competitions and high public expectation. One of !irst had been built as a branch when the bank had writer and freelance curator based in Oslo. the process of being evacuated and emptied of these was the 110-year-old building on the square its headquarters in Trondheim, and was given the He writes the story of Bankplassen 4, a site their previous functions. The National Gallery, Bankplassen. address Bankplassen 3. The branch was completed that has housed both Christiania Theater, the Norges Bank, and, until recently, the Museum the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum in 1828 and was designed by the particularly e!!icient of Contemporary Art. of Decorative Arts and Design, the Deichman architect Christian Heinrich Grosch. When Norges Central Library and the Munch Museum were 1990 Bank acquired its headquarters in Christiania in among fourteen cultural institutions, all of which 1897, Bankplassen 3 was too small, and a new, were to be removed from the buildings they had An old-fashioned voice-over accompanied the larger and more prestigious building was needed.2 occupied for many years. These !ive became our TV audience into the newly opened Museum primary objects of study. The project culminated of Contemporary Art in 1990. The public were In Terskel 1, the interior architect Kay Maria in an exhibition and a debate programme under invited into “a large, heavy building, a fortress Staaland wrote about the competition to design the the auspices of the predecessor of Oslobiennalen, that protects what we have collected,” as the building, announced in 1900. It was already clear Oslo Pilot, in the spring of 2016. narrator commented with ambiguous chattiness, from the competition brief that the building also referring to the building’s earlier life as a bank.1 had to provide space for the public, which led to, The aim of the project was not only to show that NRK’s documentary Time, money and art showed among other things, the magni!icent sky-lit hall, the evacuation of high-quality buildings without glimpses of the building work preceding the museum which was later to become the main space in the concrete plans for their use afterwards constituted opening. The concrete, down-to earth functions Museum of Contemporary Art.3 The commission a poor use of resources. It was just as important of the bank building, and the more ephemeral, for the design of a new !lag-ship building for to discuss the fact that these major evacuations high-cultural function of the contemporary art Norges Bank was an attractive one, and a total were happening all at once without a coherent exhibition space were presented as if in opposition of 62 proposals were submitted.