The Knut Hamsun Centre ( no, Hamsunsenteret) is a museum and educational centre in

Hamarøy Hamarøy ( smj, Hábmer) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is t ...

Northern Norway Northern Norway ( nb, Nord-Norge, , nn, Nord-Noreg; se, Davvi-Norga) is a geographical Regions of Norway, region of Norway, consisting of the two northernmost counties Nordland and Troms og Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainlan ...

dedicated to the life and work of the writer

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...

. The architect

Steven Holl Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is a New York-based American architect and watercolorist. Among his most recognized works are the 2019 REACH expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 2019 Hunters Point Library in Q ...

was first contacted about designing a centre for Knut Hamsun in 1994. He traveled to Hamarøy and made a watercolour of the centre's design that looks quite similar to the building today. Holl was inspired by the Hamarøy nature and scenery, by Norwegian building tradition with

stave churches A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts ...

and sod roofs, and by Hamsun's literature—especially the early works ''

Hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...

'' (1890) and '' Mysteries'' (1892). Steven Holl has described the Knut Hamsun Centre as "concretizing a Hamsun character in architectonic terms", and he continues: "The concept for the museum, 'Building as a Body:Battleground of invisible Forces,' is realized from inside and out." This concept is a quote from the 1974 translation of ''Hunger'' by

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

. The buildings' design has generated considerable attention and debate, and the Knut Hamsun Centre has received several national and international architecture awards. Holl originally wanted the centre to be built close to Hamsun's childhood home in Hamsund, but local authorities moved it 5 km east, to Presteid, where Knut Hamsun spent a significant part of his childhood with his uncle. The building process was delayed due to a long-time struggle with local red tape. The newspaper ''

Morgenbladet ''Morgenbladet'' is a Norwegian weekly, newspaper, covering politics, culture and science. History ''Morgenbladet'' was founded in 1819 by the book printer Niels Wulfsberg. The paper is the country's first daily newspaper; however, Adresseavi ...

'' referred to it at one point as "Norway's most discussed non-existing building". The Knut Hamsun Centre was finished on August 4, 2009, the 150th anniversary of Knut Hamsun's birth, and the exhibition about Hamsun's life and work opened for the public in June 2010. The exhibition is structured thematically and deals with topics like Knut Hamsun's childhood in Hamarøy, Hamsun's support of Germany during World War II, and

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

or proto-modernism in Hamsun's writing.The Knut Hamsun Centre official website
Retrieved 15 August 2011. Administratively, the centre is subordinate to Nordland Museum, and the museum director is Bodil Børset.

References

External links

* *Slide shows: {{authority control Museums in Nordland Literary museums in Norway Museums established in 2009 2009 establishments in Norway Knut Hamsun Steven Holl buildings Hamarøy