Vitenparken

The project is generously supported by the DNB Savings Bank Foundation.
We are well underway with the work and the public can experience the first results in early 2025.

In recent years, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has determined that we are not only facing a climate crisis, but that we are also losing species and areas at a breakneck pace in a parallel and intertwined natural crisis.

In light of this, Vitenparken We have therefore chosen to flag the work on upgrading our exhibition under the banner Biodiversity. By using biodiversity as a narrative device, we will present the challenges brought about by the nature and climate crisis, as well as point out and explore existing and future solutions to these challenges in a vivid and engaging way.

At crossroads
Vitenparken is constantly evolving and we see that our growing audience both wants and needs a broader offering. We strongly believe that knowledge-based and creative work across disciplines and generations breaks down established divisions between nature and culture, and across age groups. An interdisciplinary approach to the development of the exhibition is therefore not only desirable, but important and necessary for our ability to communicate about - and create a sense of ownership for - solutions to the ongoing climate crisis among our visitors.

Open and honest
Since its inception in 2013, the Science Park's mantra for communication has been "Open, honest, positive, research-based and solution-oriented", something we stand by in the upgrade of our communication arenas.
We believe there is a need to radically reconstruct the ways we work, think about, and communicate the themes of sustainability, biodiversity, the climate crisis, and the environment. We need conversations, discussions, reflection, and exchanges of ideas about what we think the environment is, what sustainability is and means for everyone. It is in the encounter between human and other life forms that experiences, learning processes, and activities emerge.

Outside and inside
Our exhibition differs from other comparable players' exhibitions in that it not only consists of an indoor exhibition, but also a 2400m2 kitchen garden, access to NMBU's beautiful park, classrooms, and our digital spaces. Connecting all these exhibition areas and communication arenas into a whole, gives us a vibrant, dynamic and innovative space to conduct modern science communication that creates engagement.

Art as a storytelling tool
Materials and nature are not necessarily props that need “help” from human forces, they instead consist of their own forces with tendencies and room for action. In the interdisciplinary work with art and science, we want to investigate how we as humans respond in the encounter with the materials around us and how we continuously influence and are influenced by living beings and living places. Here, our art department NOBA will play a central role.

7 theme sections
The choice of biodiversity as the guiding star through the development of the new strategy for our exhibitions is rooted in the climate and nature crisis we humans are in the midst of. The exhibition will consist of seven thematic sections: The Tree, The Table, The Sea, The Animal, The Body, Climate and Earth.

Project group:
Elise Matilde Malik – project manager
Ole Andreas Nordhaug – educator and communicator
Rebekka Sæter – artist and communicator
Eli Skatvedt – head of Norwegian BioArt Arena – NOBA
Herman Tandberg – Exhibition Designer / Oglenoor
Skjalg Molvær – Technical Inventor / Inspire to Action

Contact:
Solveig Arnesen, CEO at Vitenparken
solveig@vitenparken.no
Elise Matilde Malik, communications advisor
elise@vitneparken.no