Monk new museum between heaven and hell

If the most famous painting in Norway outside the world is Munch's Scream, then the Norwegians are shouting that Munch's legacy in Norway is much richer.

Less than a year ago, the new museum of Norwegian national treasure painter Monk was officially opened in the fjord in downtown Oslo. Those tourists who are attracted by screaming are opening "monks" in a brand-new way.

Yes, you are right. The name of the new museum centered on the work of artist Monk is concise and lively, and even the suffix of "museum" is simply omitted-it is called "Monk".

Since then, Oslo Fjord has added a new landmark. The 1 1 exhibition hall on the third floor, like a new city living room, introduces a brand-new Oslo to the world in the most Scandinavian way-different from the former green capital of Europe. Today's Oslo is rising rapidly with the appearance of the new monk's hall.

No wonder Norwegian local media said: Oslo is "shouting" to the whole world.

What do you think of Oslo without the new Monk Museum?

This question is hard to say or answer, because everyone's impression of Nordic cities is nothing more than: the climate is cold, the land is vast and sparsely populated, people don't interfere with each other, and they keep a social distance from each other.

No matter Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen or Helsinki, they are all born with their own green genes, they all set up their cities with ecology, environmental protection and sustainability, they all have extreme climates unimaginable to ordinary people, and they all have their own "high cold" temperament-local people may not always answer questions from outsiders, but they always open their mouths.

In a sense, Monk, as a pioneer of expressionist painting school, fits well with the city of Oslo: indifferent, small and ignorant people will not easily agree with it, and only in-depth people love it thoroughly.

From The Scream and Madonna, the two most famous masterpieces, to death of marat, Ashes and The Storm, just listening to the names is enough to make people feel anxious, bored and even depressed.

Monk, who has a legendary life, gave hope to others, although he was also questioned as suffering from mental illness.

In Painting the Sun with Energy, Monk surprised everyone with exaggerated lines and bright colors. As Chen Danqing said, "The most important element of a painting is not to make people understand it, but whether it can surprise people".

Before moving to the Oslo Fjord, the location of the "new home", the Old Monk Museum held two exhibitions during the COVID-19 epidemic: "Remote Monk and Nature" and "Experimental Self-Monk Photography".

When international flight became difficult during the epidemic, these two offline exhibitions related to Monk, in the form of natural paintings, intensified the inner desire for nature of modern people. As Monk himself said, "photography is not as good as painting after all, because it can't describe heaven or hell."

Therefore, when people saw the new monk pavilion in Oslo Fjord during the epidemic, some people saw heaven and some people saw hell.

The Guardian commented on this building whose image was exaggerated to almost "weird": "This is the best container to accommodate Monk's tortured repressed nerves. Since then, the shadow of Monk has shrouded Oslo. "

Juan Herreros, a Spanish architect, only considered "bringing new visual impact to Oslo" when designing new buildings. "Although the final building will resist some existing order and thinking, Oslo really needs such a building to carry the Monk spirit. It is the best container for monk thinking between heaven and hell. "

The Guardian as a media and Herreros as an architect both mentioned one word when talking about the New Monk Museum: container. In fact, the spaces represented by museums, art galleries and various cultural spaces all have this container attribute.

According to the academic explanation, the New Monk Museum is more like the "third space" between the office and home.

Edward Sawyer, a representative scholar of space theory, believes that space is not only a physical existence that people usually realize and can be marked, that is, it is not only a physical space, but also a spiritual attribute. On top of the material and spiritual space, there is a "third space" containing truth and imagination.

Ding Junjie, Dean of Advertising College of Communication University of China, put forward the concept of "spatial media" in 20021. He believes that space is a container, and the container itself and its contents can form a unique world of meaning. History, background, significance, value, status, etc. Can give "space" a field effect.

"So, space media is a meaningful media, a symbolic media, and a value media. The reason for the existence of space media comes from the essence of space, the meteorology of space, the implication of space, the realm of space, the artistic conception of space and the pattern of space. "

According to this idea, cities with different forms and functions are also the spatial media on our planet.

If we copy the American social philosopher lewis mumford's understanding of urban function, then a city can be defined as "a complex of primitive groups and various aggregates with specific purposes".

Therefore, cities have the attributes of traditional media. The CBD, which represents the factors of power, money and desire, the creative park that conveys culture, art and personality, and the city skyline that touches the sky all release the "spiritual leader" and "elite model" of a city in a multi-dimensional, all-round and three-dimensional way.

At the same time, it also has new media attributes, such as punching cards, network celebrity landmarks and interactive spaces, which are very similar to the symbols of the times under the background of mobile internet-cloud communication, creative promotion space and fancy marketing city.

Of course, the essence and core of the city are unchanged and will never change. It is a kind of spatial media, which is born with the characteristics of releasing signals, sources and information through space, as well as the nature of spreading values, world views and city views through space.

Take Oslo as an example. If this Nordic city with a population of less than 500,000 is regarded as a spatial media, the Old Monk Museum is its media landmark, Carl John Street is its social space, and vigeland Park is its outer label. The New Monk Museum, which opened on 202 1 and 10, is actually like a "space transfer" of the media core plate-the transformation and iteration from traditional media (space) to modern media (space). A new space with high technology as the main body and digitalization as the shell has opened the city of Oslo, or rather, opened the road to the transformation of this broader space media.

The new monk museum is more like the "third space" between the office and home.

Everyone is anxious when the connection becomes difficult and the traffic starts to appear obstacles. As Foucault said in Text and Context of Different Spaces, "the anxiety of our times has a fundamental relationship with space, even more than with time".

"Today, it is space, not time, that blocks our sight, making it impossible for us to identify various results; It is the creation of geography, not history, which shows the most thought-provoking and complicated theoretical world. " This shows the importance of space itself.

In Ding Junjie's view, today everyone is discussing the concept of "everything is media", that is to say, the target is media and the platform is diversified. The appearance of space media has become an inevitable phenomenon.

The new monk museum, which has become an inevitable phenomenon, actually carries more than the word "museum". Of course, its core essence is to provide a huge stage for the artistic heritage given to the city after the death of 1944: about 28,000 works, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, prints, photos, as well as his documents and personal belongings.

At the same time, it is more like a personal biography with space as the medium. From furniture to painting materials, even to cigarette butts, these personal items describe every frame of Monk's seclusion in Ai Keli Manor, a suburb of Oslo. It is no exaggeration to say that when you walk into the new monk pavilion, you walk into the private world of monks.

Every media has its own communication ideas and tendencies, and the New Monk Museum, as a space media, is no exception. Architect Herreros believes that the Monk Museum is of great symbolic significance in this huge core project. "edvard munch's philosophy is not to accept those established rules, to fight against opposition and never to give up."

Henriksen, curator of the New Monk Museum, said that although this meaningful space is covered with the cloak of a "museum", "we hope that everyone will forget that this is a museum, because you can enjoy the atmosphere of equality and freedom here, and you can also see the life of Monk here".

Editor-in-Chief He Renyuan