New Nordic. We Are What We Eat

As I enter the exhibition New Nordic. Cuisine, Aesthetics and Place, I first encounter the large video installation Landskap / Landscape. The video, produced for The National Museum by its contracted film production company Hacienda, contains a long shot of reindeer grazing in the tundra highlands. The filming location is not specified but it visualizes what is largely considered a stereotypical Nordic landscape: sparse vegetation, snow-covered, mountainous, freely grazing deer, little or unpopulated areas. The video sets the tone for the first of four chapters in the exhibition, which is equally entitled Landskap / Landscape.

Notably, it is exactly this stereotypical landscape that is under threat and should be viewed with a critical eye – both because it is inextricably connected to climate change and because of the continuous violation of indigenous rights. I am unsure if such reading was curatorially intended within the context of this exhibition. What is evident, however, is that the changing climate uproots the reindeers’ life cycles and increasingly prevents them from getting access to food (when grounds melt and freeze again at unpredictable times it happens that grounds freeze when they shouldn’t). Also, the cultural practice of reindeer herding exercised by Indigenous peoples of the North are under threat: not only obstruct governmental laws traditional reindeer herding and slaughter practices (see the section Sámi Restaurant in the exhibition’s accompanying compendium, which is well worth reading in its entirety) but also the issuing of licenses to wind farms and mining companies on traditional Sámi land has led to lawsuits and consequences for both reindeers, herders and their communities. Landskap / Landscape then is the prelude to a multilayered subject in the Nordic regions. 

In the context of this exhibition, landscape is specifically related to what could be called Nordicness or Nordic-specific, what its nature has to offer, and how it shapes a particular aesthetic. While food and what has been termed New Nordic Cuisine takes centre stage, the exhibition clearly states that this new art of making food is interconnected with and reaches out to other practices, including art, architecture, and design. More specifically, the exhibition New Nordic. Cuisine, Aesthetics and Place aims to trace the origins and intersections of a food movement that originated in the Nordic countries in the early 2000s. It lays out why and how this movement started, historical precursors, and who its main players were or still are. It highlights the connections between kitchen chefs, food producers, hunters and foragers, architects, designers, craftsmen and more – all united by working locally and regionally specific. Their biggest denominator is a deep connection to place, and with it, an engagement with local histories and traditions. The attention to local histories and traditions is thus an underlying theme in tracing the “New Nordic” (cuisine) – whether being maintained, researched, manifested, reinvigorated, pushed or played with. 

Curatorially, this is done by dividing the exhibition into the four chapters entitled Landskap / Landscape, Råvaren / The Ingredient, Teknikk / Technique and Presentasjon / Presentation. Each chapter includes a short introductory documentary-style film produced for the exhibition. Generally, the chapters lay bare how different cultural practices are connected to the new Nordic cuisine movement. Also, in terms of exhibition architecture a coherence is formed, such as through large wooden shelf structures that simultaneously act as display cases and room dividers . At the same time, the chapters build upon one another. Landskap / Landscape then is the chapter that presents the visitor with background information as to how the Nordic landscape and its flora and fauna has been represented, both historically and today. 

In one of the large shelf structures historical botanical drawings and maps from expeditions to the North are on display, as well as architectural drawings, photographs and architecture models termed representative for a new Nordic style (such as the restaurant Under by Snøhetta). The wall on the opposite side of the shelf structure shows historical landscape drawings by well-known Nordic artists such as Thomas Fearnley (1802-1842), Johannes Flintoe (1787-1870) and Hans Gude (1825-1903). Contemporary representations include Olafur Eliasson’s photographs The Fault Series (2001) and Kristine Fornes’s cotton and silk embroidery Pine, pine, spruce and spruce (2011). 

Elin Már Øyen Vister’s Soundscape Røst (2012), in turn is not a visual but a sonic representation of a landscape located in the North (Lofoten). Based on field recordings from the Røst archipelago, Soundscape Røst is both a work of documentation and imagination. Monumental and frail sounds such as those of twittering birds or ocean waves blend into one another to form a uniquely composed soundscape that invites to pause and listen deeply (it is also possible to immerse oneself in the work at a “listening lounge” at the museum’s library). The work maybe represents best what is generally little addressed in the exhibition: that Nordic landscapes are also imaginary constructs, that they are subject to being romanticized, and that its characteristics continuously fascinate people who are not native to the North. Nevertheless, Soundscape Røst communicates to the listener a sonic image of a place that is distinct in terms of its harsh weather, its rich bird life, and where fishing Sea Sámi culture is practiced. The work is thus also an expression of what a Nordic landscape offers and how it shapes a culture that is deeply local and specific. It is this which takes a central position in the exhibition: the notion of place and how place determines our culture and way of life. 

The Manifesto for a New Nordic Cuisine from 2004, which is prominently displayed in a vitrine underneath the introductory exhibition text, then, is exactly an expression of that. Signed by twelve (only male!) kitchen chefs of restaurants located in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Åland) the ten-point manifesto advocated a regionalist cuisine “that respects factors including ingredients, growing conditions, seasonal awareness, nutrition and product development”. According to the exhibition’s compendium guide, the manifesto is an important event in what has been termed “New Nordic Cuisine”, together with a political program run by the Nordic Council of Ministers to promote Nordic food culture, and the general “artistic trend in culinary art throughout the Nordic region, as well as internationally, that strives for a fundamentally regional cuisine based on creative interpretation of regional ingredients and food traditions, with significant elements of aesthetic expression and naturalism”. According to the curators, this New Nordic cuisine became associated with an interdisciplinary aesthetic which made use of local natural materials such as animal hide, untreated wood, unbleached fabrics or plants. Thus the chapters that follow, Råvaren / The Ingredient, Teknikk / Technique and Presentasjon / Presentation, are logical additions to the exhibition. 

In Råvaren / The Ingredient, as the title hints at, the role and use of local ingredients are highlighted and reflected upon. Toril Redalen’s Lettuce Legacy (2023) is a175-piece installation of different types of lettuce made from clay. The partially moulded, glazed, and low-fired clay refers to the English 18th century trompe l'œil ceramics tradition in which crockery imitating vegetables should appear as life-like as possible. In the context of this exhibition the “lettuce pieces” appear like real imprints of lettuce types that are either extinct or grow specifically in the Nordic regions. Other examples of “transferal” are Anders Smebye’s Bone Broth (2024-25) or Aron Irving Li’s Red Lichen (2023).

The chapters Teknikk / Technique and Presentasjon / Presentation, which are bundled in the second room, tell the story of New Nordic Cuisine in practice. A table with books, several of them published by well-known kitchen chefs, let the visitor get an overview of the variety of techniques for preserving, preparing and presenting food, all related to the Nordic regions. The front side of the large shelf structure gives an insight into different kinds of food making and crafts techniques, ranging from fermentation to making ceramic glazes with ingredients found in nature (for example those invented and used by ceramicist Sissel Wathne). On the back side of the shelf structure a selection of tableware is displayed, together with examples of furniture, all especially designed for restaurants representing new Nordic cuisine. Examples are tableware by Odd Standard for restaurants Kontrast and Rest in Oslo and Re-naa in Stavanger, Anette Krogstad for Schlagergården, Pjoltergeist and Hotshop in Oslo and Noma in Copenhagen, Anne Udnes and Anette Krogstad for Ylajali or Sara Skotte for Maaemo, both in Oslo. Furniture by København Møbelsnedkeri for Relæ in Copenhagen and by Snøhetta for Under in Lindesnes add to the collection on display. 

Finally, four tableaus are thought to convey historical moments from four restaurants in which different material and aesthetic expressions are presented (Fäviken Magasinet, Fäviken; Kadeu, Bornholm; Maaemo, Oslo; Koks, Faroe Islands). Although the tableau from Koks is placed close to the exhibition’s entrance area, these four become the culmination of the exhibition. Here the tables form a Gesamtkunstwerk that point to what the exhibition from my understanding communicates: that food and food making is an artform that is part of our cultural heritage and traditions; and that all artforms nurture one another through one thing that they are all connected to: place. It was therefore also a smart curatorial decision to – even if this is communicated as an overall Nordic movement – put a large focus on local (Norwegian) food culture and practices, which also unfolds through the event programme at the purpose-built pavilion in front of the museum’s entrance. Were this exhibition to take place at Moderna Museet in Stockholm or the National Gallery in Copenhagen, New Nordic. Food Aesthetics and Place would surely have had a different outcome.