REICHSAUSSTELLUNGEN

RIKSUTSTILLINGER, a national institution created to organize exhibitions under the slogan Art to the People, has existed since 1953. Because Norway is a vast country with few urban centers, the social-democratic aim was to create cultural equality by sending touring exhibitions to citizens across the country. In 2003, the institution celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a major exhibition, for which curator Jonas Ekeberg invited Norwegian artists to reflect on Riksutstillinger—its history, functions, and guiding motto, “Art to the People.”

In Germany after 1945, the word Reich (empire, realm) was removed from institutional names and disappeared from general use due to its associations with the Third Reich. Interestingly, the term derives etymologically from the Scandinavian rike, a word used uncritically in many national institutions throughout Scandinavia. Lars Ø. Ramberg responded to this linguistic and ideological tension by simply translating the institution’s name from Norwegian into German: Reichsausstellungen.

For the exhibition, he created a site-specific, wall-to-wall installation built around this single German word. Painted in fire-red letters on an olive-green background, the work measured approximately thirty-seven by seven meters. Ramberg repeated the installation in three Norwegian museums over the course of a year.

The piece highlights the irony of a self-described social-democratic institution whose name evokes imperial power. Riksutstillinger also resists local influence in its programming: a selection of “fine art” chosen by a small urban elite is distributed from the capital to rural districts, with the state determining what the public supposedly needs. In 2005, the institution was absorbed into the Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design in Oslo—an act that further consolidated cultural authority within a centralized national framework.