Artist Talk and Guided Tour: Carrying Devices by Sigurd Bronger

Sigurd Bronger is an internationally renowned Norwegian artist who works within a distinctive universe. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Torsten and Wanja Söderbergs Prize, a Nordic award for excellence in design and applied arts. In March this year, he was honoured with a major solo exhibition, Wearables, at the Museum of Modern Art in Munich, Pinakothek der Moderne/Die Neue Sammlung. The exhibition featured 170 works, many of which were borrowed from private and public collections. In January 2025, Bronger will hold an exhibition at Format in Oslo. It will be nearly 30 years since his last solo exhibition in Norway.


Since the late 1990s, Bronger has focused on developing and shaping his objects, initially based on a variety of ready-made items or materials from nature. He re-contextualizes these elements into new and often surprising compositions, which he refers to as Carrying Devices. Some materials come from the most prosaic aspects of everyday life, such as soap bars, erasers, used shoe soles, while others are sourced from nature, such as nautilus shells and eggs. Every piece is crafted with rigorous precision, a result of Bronger’s training as a classical goldsmith and watchmaker.

Bronger was born in Oslo in 1957 and educated at MTS Vakschool in Schoonhoven, Netherlands, from 1975 to 1979. He worked in the Netherlands from 1980 to 1983 before returning to Oslo, where he has lived and worked since. He was a part-time professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) from 2014 to 2022, at the Department of Metal and Jewelry Arts, and a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art in London from 2001 to 2002. His works are included in the collections of several major museums abroad, such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the V&A Museum in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Pinakothek der Moderne/Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Swiss National Museum, and the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. Bronger’s works are also held by all the major museums in Norway.


Opening speech by: Dr. Petra Hölscher - Senior Curator at Die Neue Sammlung / Pinakothek der Moderne.

The exhibition is a collaboration with:
- Typeface ‘Sigurd’ by Ina Bauer Studio, Stuttgart, Germany.
- Sounstracks by composer Bjørn Øyvinn Bugge
- Arnoldsche Art Publishers
- Die Design Museum
- Lofthus Samvirkelag L/L