What´s on this spring?

Theme for the year: The collectors

What is the museum, art and music without the collectors?

Most of the public museums have gifts and initiatives from private collectors as an important starting point. From the time the oldest museum collection of art was established in Bergen, it took almost a hundred years before permanent public support came to develop and run the museum.

The quality our collections have today, which means that audiences from all over the world seek them out, is mainly due to large gifts given by individual collectors and owners.

Some are commemorated with the names of exhibition rooms and buildings, such as Rasmus Meyer and Stenersen. But throughout the museum's history, significant gifts to the public have been donated to be managed by the museum, including the composers' homes.

Collaboration with active collectors is also today an important prerequisite for museums to be able to show broad narratives about art and history. In 2023, "Collectors" will therefore be an overall theme for Kode's programme.

We shine a spotlight on individual collectors' stories and motivation, but also on what a collection is and how it can be used. The economic and cultural prerequisites for collecting art (and who collects) also become part of the conversation. We also present living collectors who build collections with public accessibility as their goal.

In music, there are several great composers who were collectors, or who made use of collected material.

Edvard Grieg built much of his production on existing collections of Norwegian folk music and we get to experience much of this throughout the year. So did Agathe Backer Grøndahl, another important composer who ends up on the program at Troldhaugen and Siljustøl.

The house composer in 2023 is Ørjan Matre. In the work he composes, he takes Kode's musical collection as his starting point and thus he himself will act as a collector/sampler.

More information, more exhibitions and events will be published over the New Year.

Kode's composer in residence 2023

Kode is proud to be able to present Ørjan Matre as the museum's resident composer for 2023.

Each year a new composer is chosen to take on this role. During the year, the resident composer has the opportunity to curate concerts, lectures and content in social media, in addition to composing a brand new work which is performed towards the end of the period.

Each composer has their own twist on how they want to shape their time at Kode. In the past, Wolfgang Plagge and Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi have held the role of Kode's house composer.

Who is Ørjan Matre?

Ørjan Matre is one of Norway's leading composers. He belongs to a generation of Norwegian composers who early on explored and appropriated the large orchestral format, of which the breakthrough work Four miniatures for orchestra (2005) is an example.

Even if Matre constantly challenges his technical skill through finely meshed and risk-seeking instrumentation or by introducing quotes, instruments and playing techniques that shake up established musical constellations, the solid craftsmanship contributes to the music being played regularly and reaching a growing international audience.

Børre Sæthre. Last Dance

Where: Lysverket

When: 09.06. - 29.10.2023

Kode presents the critically acclaimed artist Børre Sæthre with a spectacular installation in Tårnsalen.

Børre Sæthre (b. 1967) is one of Norway's most prominent artists and is known for his all-encompassing installations and sensuous effects. Sæthre references queer culture, cinematic history and escapism to create installations that envelop the audience. This summer, he takes on the futuristic Tårnsalen at Kode in Bergen with a site specific installation.

Last Dance is the final instalment of a trilogy – a three-part project that aims to illuminate the phenomenon of ‘cruising’ from a historical and socio-political perspective, with a look back at the AIDS crisis and its consequences for queer culture. A central element of the installation is a site that has significant historical importance to cruising culture in Bergen.

Børre Sæthre (b. 1967) is one of Norway's most prominent artists, known for his enveloping stagings and use of sensual means, often with references to popular culture and film.

It Might Be Beautiful. The Art Collector Rolf Stenersen

Where: Stenersen

When: 10.03. - 27.08.2023

Rolf Stenersen (1899–1978) was a stockbroker, author and his time's most high-profile collector of modern art in Norway.

At just 37 years old, he donated a large collection of pictures by Edvard Munch and younger Norwegian artists to the municipality of Oslo. In 1971 he transferred his new collection of European modernists such as Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Sonia Delaunay to Bergen.

This exhibition examines Stenersen's artistic ideals, interests and ambitions through 164 works from the two collections, which are currently managed by MUNCH and Kode. The collections have not been shown together since the 1970s.

The exhibition is curated and organized by Kode, in collaboration with MUNCH, where it was shown in the summer of 2022.

Munch, Astrup, Backer and the collector Rasmus Meyer

This spring, we are also marking the fact that our main works by Munch are returning home to Bergen, after successful exhibitions in both London and Paris.

In a newly installed second floor of Rasmus Meyer's collections, space will be provided for new stories about the collector Meyer.

We gain insight into his relationship with Munch and other artists of his time, such as Nikolai Astrup, Harriet Backer and Kitty Kielland.

In the autumn, new installations will also follow on the first floor. Here, the historic Bergen interiors are joined by objects from other collections at Kode.

Continues from 2022:

Annette Kierulf and Caroline Kierulf. To Make a World.

Where: Stenersen

When: Closing 22 January!

Playing Pieces

Where: Permanenten

When: Closing 12 March

To be updated:

Check the calendar for updates on more concerts and event for Spring 2023!