It's day two on the job as superintendent of Moderna Museet, Arkdes and the Swedish National Art Council - since the turn of the year, the new major authority on Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.
Tone Hansen's office is equal parts laptop, mobile phone and lipstick, currently located in a meeting room opposite Moderna Museet, where the Swedish National Art Council is located. She intends to get to know all parts of her workplace as well as Swedish architecture - a new area for her.
I am a nomad in my working life and intend to continue to be so, she says.
She did not compare the Norwegian and Swedish cultural grants before accepting. This spring, the Norwegian Munch Museum, where Tone Hansen was the director, received a savings plan of 40 million Norwegian kroner and was forced to cut staff, something she hopes to avoid experiencing again. Is that something to be feared after a merger?
My most important job is to make the authorities understand how important art and culture are at a time when we need places to meet, be together and learn about other cultures. That is my answer.
Learn
She sees contemporary art as "the best possible place for a person to learn about the world, other people and cultures."
I know from my own experience that art can be a hugely liberating force. Art requires you to be curious and inquisitive, even about things you don't understand. I think it's important to constantly be challenged about things you don't understand.
Ideas exist - she sees Skeppsholmen as “a gold mine of opportunities”.
I have many thoughts and visions, but they should be anchored internally, we should develop this together, and I am very aware that a museum of this size is a team effort. But I have some big dreams - for the whole of Skeppsholmen.
Become free
At Henie Onstad Kunstcenter in Oslo, she worked on the project “The Shadow of Freedom,” which was about a pedagogical paradox: How do you discipline someone to become free? - the great dilemma of art, she explains. The history of experimental pedagogy still interests her now, she says, and mentions Palle Nielsen’s 1968 exhibition that turned Moderna into a gigantic play workshop for children.
I'm not afraid to make big blockbusters, but we'll also do the narrow stuff that requires a long research period, we straddle between that and Moderna's radical creative history.
Facts: Tone Hansen about...
...whether the museum should be able to accept donations from gallery owners and then exhibit their artists? This is in reference to Svenska Dagbladet's reporting on the former museum director's criticized settlement.
I can't comment on this before I get into it, but having a good ethical framework will make it easier to make the right decisions. That's something we'll work on.
...art and culture as part of preparedness in troubled times:
I believe that art and culture can strengthen community. In a time when we are talking about preparedness, we need to find many ways to talk about how important art and culture are to us.
...about being a trained artist myself:
I know how vulnerable the artists are.
...about his own artistry:
I walk past my watercolors and brushes but it doesn't happen. But doing exhibitions and working closely with artists is a very creative job. Releasing creativity and self-confidence in a staff is also very satisfying for me.
Born: 1970 in Kirkenes, near the Russian border.
Growing up: In Trönderlag, in a creative home with parents who came from a working-class background but had trained as engineers and teachers respectively. As a child, she built her own dollhouse with her father: “Building it was the fun part. When it was finished, we pulled out all the chairs and blankets and built our own cabins. I thought I could do it all.”
Background: Trained as an artist at the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts and spent a year at the Malmö Academy of Fine Arts. Former director of the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and then the Munch Museum in Oslo. Now has an appointment until August 2032 as director of the Moderna Museet.
Lives: Soon in an apartment in Vasastan, Stockholm, and in Oslo.
Family: Partner in Oslo and his children.
Last Swedish book read: "The Man Who Died Like a Salmon" by Mikael Niemi - "I learned a lot about Finnish, Swedish and Russian history, and about the Tornedalen."
