Museums and Contemporary Art: MUNCH – Between the Iconic and the Contemporary

How can one of the world’s most powerful artistic legacies be balanced with a bold and forward-looking museum programme?

In the lecture MUNCH – Between the Iconic and the Contemporary, Tone Hansen presents the vision behind the new MUNCH museum, inaugurated in 2021. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of works by Edvard Munch, while also serving as an international platform for modern and contemporary art.

Starting from the museum’s three core pillars – Edvard Munch, modernism, and contemporary art – Hansen reflects on how historical legacy, contemporary artistic expression, and global perspectives can coexist within a single institution. The lecture also explores MUNCH’s role as an open, inclusive, and experimental civic space.

This seminar ↗ is the third event in the Swedish Museums Association’s seminar series ↗ on museums and contemporary art, organised in collaboration with Maria Lind. Running from autumn 2025 to spring 2026, the series brings together Swedish and international experts to examine how contemporary art challenges and inspires museums in relation to collections, archives, and their societal role.

The seminar will be livestreamed. A link will be published here closer to the event.