NORDIC LIFE
10 February 2024 – Ongoing
Welcome to our grandest exhibition ever. Explore life and people in the Nordic region over 500 years, set against its stunning nature, changing seasons and real-life stories from the Nordiska museet collections and archives.
How has the Nordic Region Taken Shape, and Who lives here?
The exhibition Nordic Life, allows you to explore how culture and life in the Nordic region have been shaped and reshaped through interactions between people, nature, and climate. What does nature mean to the people? What do families and homes look like? What do Nordic people believe in, dream about, fear, and find solace in?
Encounter Real-life Stories
The main characters of the exhibition are portrayed life stories from our collections. You’ll encounter individuals who live or have lived here in reality. The narrative unfolds through the changing seasons of the Nordic nature – a shared experience for people living in the Nordic region, regardless of time and context. The exhibition spans the entire top floor of the museum through 27 rooms.
Explore 500 Years Through Four Seasons
As you enter the exhibition, it’s the early 1500s and cold midwinter in the forest. Continue to villages and towns through spring and summer, encountering individuals from various times, places, and of different ages and social classes whose life stories leave traces in our collections and archives.
As you approach the end of the exhibition, it’s late autumn. You’ve reached present day and can witness how contemporary Nordic people think and live. And finally, you stand at the edge of a future forest.
-
In the exhibition, you meet Lars Nilsson, who was burned at the stake in 1693 for attempting to revive his grandchild. The court records are available in the Nordiska museet collections. Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
Factory boy Anders Gideon one of the portrayed life stories you encounter in the Nordic Life exhibition Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
In the exhibition, you encounter the itinerant trader Anna Nilsdotter during a market day in 1839. Her theft report is documented in the Nordiska museet collections. Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
In the exhibition, you meet sawmill worker Anna Karlsson, born in 1876, whose story is documented in the Nordiska museet collections. Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
Midwife Catharina Koberg is one of the portrayed life stories you encounter in the Nordic Life exhibition Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
Crofter Hulda Hals is one of the portrayed life stories you encounter in the Nordic Life exhibition Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet -
Artist Lars who is suffering from AIDS is one of the portrayed life stories you encounter in the Nordic Life exhibition Photo: Niklas Palmklint / Nordiska museet
Engage with Thousands of Real Objects
The Nordiska museet collections contain 1,5 million cultural-historical objects. In the exhibition you’ll discover about 4000 from different eras – some mundane som quite spectacular. Some have never been displayed before. All carry significance and speak of the people who used them and the times they belong to.
Interactive Experience
You can actively participate in history through the interactive parts of the exhibition. Play a role in a bustling 17th-century city, become a voice in the 18th-century freedom of the press, experience 19th-century coffee culture, and leave your mark in the future forest.
-
Detail from the 18th century section of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Hendrik Zeitler -
Detail from the 18th century section of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Hendrik Zeitler / Nordiska museet -
Detail from the 19th century section of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Hendrik Zeitler / Nordiska museet -
Detail from the 17th century section of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Hendrik Zeitler -
Detail from the 18th century section of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Hendrik Zeitler / Nordiska museet -
Detail from the 18th century section of the exhibtion NORDIC LIFE. Photo: Emil Fagander / Nordiska museet -
Overview of the exhibition NORDIC LIFE spanning the top floor of Nordiska museet through 27 rooms. Foto: Nordiska museet
Audio guide for Adults and Children
Take a guided tour through the exhibition with our audioguide, blending storytelling with dramatized scenes directly on your phone. We have two versions of the audioguide:
- For adults and teenagers (in English or Swedish)
- For children aged 8–12 (in Swedish)
- The playtime is approximately 50 minutes
- Download the audioguide for free to your phone!
An Epic Tale based on the Nordiska museet Collections
Nordic Life is Nordiska museet’s largest exhibition ever. An epic and visual presentation of Nordic cultural history built on the real objects and stories collected by the museum during 150 years.
Nordic Life is produced by Nordiska museet in collaboration with experts from universities and museums in Sweden and the Nordic region, and designed by MUSEEA.
Visit options
Take a guided tour through the exhibition with our audio guide, blending storytelling with dramatized scenes directly on your phone. (Available in English and Swedish, approximately 50 minutes). We recommend bringing your own head phones.
Download our Audio guide to your phone. Available in English or Swedish. We recommend bringing your own head phones.
Watch the film sequences where you get to encounter 22 real life-stories documented in the museum’s collections. You’ll encounter individuals who live or have lived in the Nordic region in reality.
Have a coffee in the restaurant or the café in our back yard.