Kistefos Museum

Kistefos was a wood pulp mill, built in 1889 and working from 1890 to 1955, and the industrial buildings on the Randselva have been preserved as a museum while the surrounding land has become a sculpture park with around fifty works by international artists including Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Jeppe Hein and Fernando Botero, placed along paths through birch woods and around the river. In 2019 The Twist opened: a gallery by Bjarke Ingels Group that crosses the river as a bridge and rotates ninety degrees along its length, so it works simultaneously as a building, a sculpture and a footbridge, with the exhibition space changing character as it turns. The old mill machinery is kept intact and shown as part of the visit.

History

In the early 1880s Anders Sveaas (1840-1917) acquired the rights to the Kistefossen waterfall and in 1889 founded A/S Kistefos Træsliberi; the mill worked from 1890 until 1955, and its machinery was left intact. His grandson Christen Sveaas bought back 85 percent of the company in 1993, the art park opened in 1996 with 25 sculptures, and The Twist gallery opened on 18 September 2019 (Wikipedia, Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park).

What's there

• The Twist - a gallery building that bridges and rotates over the river.
• The sculpture park - around fifty works along paths through the woods.
• The pulp mill - preserved industrial buildings with machinery in place.
• The river setting - the Randselva running through the whole site.

When to go

May to October, the operating season; the park closes for winter apart from occasional events. Autumn colour in the birch woods is good in late September. Weekends in summer are busy.

What to expect

The site closes for around half the year. Paths through the park are long and involve some climbing, taking a couple of hours to cover. Tickets are relatively expensive and The Twist's exhibitions change, so a specific show may not be on.

Nearby

Hadeland Glassverk is a few kilometres north; Oslo lies eighty kilometres southeast.

Key facts