According to this article both British and German persons and organisations have been trying to aquire one of the worlds most curious museums on Iceland. It is known as the Penis museum that is being moved to a new location in Iceland from Húsavik to Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital.
Apparantly this lead to some interest and someone in Germany has offered more than 30 million Icelandic crowns for the rather unique collection. Las year the museums collections of Iceland-dwelling land mammal penises got completed as the then 95-year old Pàli Arason donated his penis to the museum.
Several foreign men have also asked to have their genital remains donated to the museum, and the proprietor, one Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, have declined being part of a talent TV show saying that it isn’t really a talent collecting phalli.
The museum of nordic culture, or ”Nordiska Museet”, is located on the south-west of the Djurgården island, not far from the Vasa museum. The entrance is from the south and we got there from the wrong direction at first but managed to get around to the right place.
The museum was not really what I expected it to be but it was still a nice day out. I had hoped for more clothes and fashion, but that whole department was closed off, they are curating a new display ready in the spring 2010 so we had to make do with what we got.
The Nordic Museum main hall. The architecture here is quite impressive and worth a visit just to admire them. You are not allowed to use flash or a tripod in here so get your fast lenses mounted and crank up your ISO setting...
Architecture and the building itself is remarkable. It is worth a visit just for these things, the main hall being especially beautiful and with the larger than life statue of Gustav Vasa the king that joined all the warring fractions of Sweden to one nation is also quite impressive.
Gustav Vasa who joined the various kingdoms into one Swedish nation.
There was a fashion display but that was mainly a few photographs on a wall and a projector showing fashion photographs and that was it.
The impression I had from the museum was that it was difficult to see who they were aiming for, the exhibitions were trying to fit all different age groups and actually did not really do a good job in some cases. The Sápmi exhibition about the Sami people and their land in the north of Scandinavia felt a little misplaced. Not that I don’t think it should be here, it was just that it seemed very half-hearted. I would have expected far more photographs from the older days and there were some nice items and clothes here but everything seemed a bit devoid of context.
But we still had a really good day out and I got to see some stuff from my favourite epoch, the sixties:
A JVC television from the sixties. I want one like that. Not a flat screen though mind you!Functionalism when at it's best!The Ericofon was originally intended to be used by people who suffered from some illness and in institutions. This way they did not have to lean over to dial a number, they could just lift the whole thing and dial easily from the bottom of the phone. Ma Bell in the US bought many of these.
