Interview: A new life with death metal

"I have rarely encountered people and environments that are more inclusive, safe, and positive," says curator Marie von Möller about the metal scene.

In the past year, Marie has found a new life through death metal. It entered her world at a time when grief was heavy to bear.

"Personal loss made me feel like life was falling apart," she says.

But in the midst of the darkness, something lit a fire in the experienced curator.

In 2024, Kode’s director Petter Snare gave Marie the task of curating an exhibition in connection with the metal festival Beyond The Gates.

Each year, a passionate and enthusiastic audience flocks to Bergen to experience dark music—and many of them also visit Kode to see artworks by the likes of Edvard Munch, J.C. Dahl, and Theodor Kittelsen.

Now, Snare wanted to strengthen the ties between the metal genre and the museum’s art collection, with a dedicated pop-up exhibition at Lysverket during the festival.

"I took on the challenge and started exploring the possibility of an exhibition for 2025."

"Incredibly liberating"

Marie was a first-time attendee at the festival in August 2024. That’s when something happened.

"I experienced the music as incredibly liberating. I dove straight into four full days of heavy riffs, wild hair action, and a volume level that silenced almost every thought."

Marie was no stranger to dark artistic expressions and subcultural phenomena—and a black wardrobe was already one of her trademarks.

Still, encountering the metal culture felt like something entirely new.

"Walking around Beyond The Gates in 2024 was like being a tourist in an unfamiliar country. Everything was new—the people, the music, the impressions. I didn’t have a map to guide me, so the journey wasn’t always easy, but it was deeply enriching."

"I went home from the festival every night with a big smile, feeling like something had been awakened in me."

A Personal Exhibition

Over the following year, Marie worked on a concept for an exhibition at Kode, approaching it from a deeply personal perspective.

"I’ve spent weeks going through images in Kode’s database, while listening to music and, most importantly, reading metal lyrics."

She chose to focus on the lyrics:

"Metal music tells stories about how people face and experience death. By connecting images from our collection with the lyrics, I wanted to interpret the feeling of metal. That is—my feeling of metal. This is a subjective interpretation, and without a doubt, a personal project for me," she admits.

Marie also wanted to preserve some of the mystery that is integral to the music in the exhibition concept.

"I’ve deliberately downplayed the names of the artists behind the images and the lyricists. I hope to give the audience a chance to discover something new—perhaps a connection or perspective that surprises or moves them," she explains.

"As a curator, I hope those who see the exhibition pause, take some time, and allow the texts to speak with the images—and the images to speak back."

Throughout the summer, Marie and the Kode team will be working to install the exhibition, which will be on view at Lysverket for a limited time during the Beyond The Gates festival.

But even though the exhibition is short-lived, Marie’s passion for metal music is here to stay.

“This project has given me the opportunity to explore a new life. It’s never too late to start over,” she says firmly.