Exhibitions

Rotation is the name of an exhibition project that has been undertaken at the Valdres Museums since 2017. Rotation comprises three separate exhibitions: a temporary exhibition, an exhibition of costumes and objects from the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume, and an exhibition of objects from Valdres Folk Museum's collections.

Fyrstedamer i bunad (or 'the leading ladies in bunads'), created by the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume, pays tribute to the pioneers in Norwegian folk costume design, both those who documented the traditional costumes and those who created the new, modern-day bunad. The exhibition displays items from this work and a selection of bunads from the past 150 years.

Rotation also presents exhibits from the Valdres Folk Museum's own rich collection as well from other institutions and private owners. Visitors can see how arts and crafts in Valdres have evolved over a thousand years, from medieval church pews to 18th-century cloths and beautiful musical instruments. The exhibition shows how local cultural traditions arise from the tension between local sources of inspiration and new impulses from outside. At the centre of all this stands the craftspeople, rotating around their own traditions while mischievously nabbing whatever ideas they might come across along the way.

Rotation has been designed by Snøhetta, the firm of architects, and has been made possible with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, Innland County Municipality, Arts Council Norway, Fritt Ord Foundation, Stiftelsen UNI, and Stiftelsen Aunebu Kunstsenter.

The old buildings span a broad spectrum of Norwegian building traditions. Pre-industrial timber-frame buildings from the 1700s and 1800s make up the largest part of the collection. The design and details are signs of local craftsmanship traditions, but also reveal affinities with internationally inspired styles. These impulses were first expressed as details in panels, mouldings, supporting beams, decorative painting and glasswork.

This exhibition tells visitors about the construction and maintenance of the King's Road, commercial activities, posting stations and about who used it. We hope visitors will find the exhibition interesting and give them a sense of life in Valdres in the 1700s and 1800s. The exhibition opened in June 2018.

Norwegian zithers from all around Norway, in a diversity of decorations comprising acanthus vines and carved lines, fish, foxes, dancers and church spires. The country's oldest stringed instrument is a 500-year-old zither from Vardal outside Gjøvik.

This exhibition discusses the national "we" from 1945 up to the present day. What happens when an attempt is made to redefine the country's national community in post-war Norway? Who falls inside that definition and who does not? And what happens to the status of traditional cultural expressions when a nation's cultural policy begins to swing from diversity and globalism in the 2000s to a national-conservative values set over the past five years?