Norway: Siltanews – News Desk
An ambitious new private museum has opened in the city of Trondheim on the western coast of Norway with a mission to boost access to art locally, address gender inequality in the nation’s collections and add to the region’s appeal as a cultural destination.
The new museum, called PoMo (short for Post Office Modern), is housed over five floors and more than 4,000 sq. m in the city’s Art Nouveau former post office. It was founded by the collectors Monica Reitan and Ole Robert Reitan, who is a co-owner of Reitan AS, a Norwegian conglomerate spanning retail, finance and property. The couple, who are now divorced, have collected art for more than 20 years. With works by artists including Simone Leigh, Louise Bourgeois, Anne Imhof and Franz West, their collection is the starting point for the museum.
PoMo aims to “tear down some of the walls between the art world and most people”, says Ole Robert. “Going into a museum can be a scary thing.” The new museum aims “to create a public space with room for everyone”.
With this in mind, the spaces, refurbished by the Iranian-French architect and designer India Mahdavi in collaboration with the Norwegian architect Erik Langdalen, are intended to be colourful and welcoming. Works on view will range from Katharina Fritsch’s Madonnenfigur (Madonna figure) (1987/2024), a yellow sculpture of the Virgin Mary previously positioned near a church in Trondheim’s shopping district, to an Ann Veronica Janssens fog room—to be installed in 2026—which surrounds visitors in artificial smog. The inaugural exhibition, Postcards from the Future (until 22 June), responds to the building’s history and “the postcard as a thematic metaphor”.
