Art in the new Government Quarter in Oslo

KORO is responsible for the art projects in the New Government Quarter in Oslo, one of the largest construction projects in Norwegian history. On completion of the first phase of the Government Quarter in 2026, visitors to the area will be surrounded by a large number of artworks from the last century, from the architecturally integrated reliefs in the H-block created in the 1950s to today’s brand-new art projects.

The Government Quarter includes several new and existing buildings, streetscapes, squares, and parks at Hammersborg. All the government ministries, except for the Ministry of Defence, will move to the New Government Quarter and thereby be gathered in one place. The project is initially planned for three construction phases and scheduled for completion in 2029.  Construction began in January 2021. Since 2019, KORO has been surveying and documenting government ministries’ collections, initiating a number of new art projects, acquiring new works, and curating the reinstallation of older artworks. During the spring of 2026, some of the government ministries will move into the New Government Quarter, and more than 250 works of art will also be installed during this period.  The second phase of construction began in 2025, and work on the art for the upcoming Government Park and the new C-block is underway.

In January 2021, KORO developed an overall Art Strategy for the New Government Quarter. (Norwegian text only) The strategy has been complemented by the Art Plan for the New Government Quarter Version 2, (English version), published in autumn 2023, which represents a further development of the initial art plan published in autumn 2021. These are publicly available documents and can be downloaded and read in Norwegian and English.

During the work on construction phase 1, KORO has carried out art project management, curating, art collection management and art conservation of the new large and integrated artworks such as the city floor Sebastia by Jumana Manna (b. 1987), the majestic AAhkA by Outi Pieski (b. 1973), and Damla Kilickiran’s (b. 1991) ten large reliefs on the A-block, Sites of a Breach, Delays in a Dream; A Surface Half Asleep. 

Both the city floor and the two major art projects for the A-block have been realised through invited competitions. In addition, a number of acquisitions have been made, open calls have been held for the entrance areas in the A- and D-blocks, and curatorial strategies have been developed for artworks that were already present in the government buildings.  The curation involves both the government ministries’ own collections and previous KORO projects.