The Twist

The Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker, north of Oslo, is known for its historic industrial park, contemporary art exhibitions and sculpture park. The museum itself was initiated in 1996 by entrepreneur and art collector Christen Sveeas. The remains of a pulp mill built in 1889 are surrounded by 46 works of art by many Norwegian and international artists, such as Yayoi Kusama, Jeppe Hein, Tony Cragg and Anish Kapoor.

The bridge is called "The Twist" because it turns 90 degrees near the middle. The curved museum geometry consists of 40-centimeter-wide aluminum panels that fan out and wrap around the building.

Inside, two contrasting exhibition spaces await visitors. The first, horizontally oriented room opens up a view of the park, the river and the existing building. The vertically oriented gallery area is reminiscent of a white cube with artificial light. They are connected by the Twisted Gallery – a spatial structure in which the wall seemingly becomes the ceiling, the ceiling the wall and the floor. This effect is intensified by whitewashed fir battens covering all surfaces.

A visit to the restrooms in the basement is also highly recommended, not only because of the videos by Tony Oursler projected onto the walls, but also because the idea of twisted optics is consistently carried further here. The iconic ME by Starck floor-standing toilets by Duravit and designer Philippe Starck look like museum exhibits in this extraordinary ambience.