MALMO.- A monastery once stood on this site. At the end of the 19th century, an elegant restaurant pavilion was built for the city’s high society, before being transformed just over a century later into a casino. Today, the yellow building in the green heart of Malmö is entering another chapter of its multifaceted history: in 2031, it is set to be converted into the permanent home of Malmö Konstmuseum.

An international architecture competition is now underway to transform and extend the historic building, creating a new home for one of Scandinavia’s most significant public art collections, comprising more than 40,000 works. But the future museum is already taking shape. Together with artists, residents, researchers, students and cultural practitioners, Malmö Konstmuseum is examining the site’s histories, challenging perspectives and testing possibilities for what a museum can become.

International architecture competition

In Kungsparken, the ambition is to create a museum that welcomes broad audiences, reflects the diversity of Malmö and offers new ways of engaging with art, culture and public life—a place where art can be presented in contemporary, accessible and inspiring surroundings. The architecture competition will explore how historic architecture and contemporary design can be integrated into a coherent and forward-looking whole, encompassing both a site-specific art museum and its immediate surroundings. The winning proposal in the architecture competition will be announced in June 2027, with the new museum scheduled to open in 2031.

Artistic exploration

Alongside the architectural competition, Malmö Konstmuseum is developing the future institution through an extensive programme of artistic exploration, public engagement and collaboration. Through projects, exhibitions, conversations and workshops, the site’s histories become a resource for imagining new futures.





“What makes this process unique is that, alongside the planning and architectural competition, we have spent several years delving into what Malmö’s future art museum can become on this site. We are testing new ideas, building relationships and shaping the museum long before the building itself is completed. By doing so, we are creating a new model for the museum as a meeting place for cultural heritage, learning and encounter, deeply rooted in Malmö and at the site, while already open to visitors from across the region and beyond.”, Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, Museum Director.

The activation of Kungsparken builds on the project My New Museum? (2023–24), in which artists Sandi Hilal and Marie Kraft, together with students from Malmö University, invited Malmö residents to contribute ideas, experiences and perspectives on the role of a future art museum.

In this long-term experiment artists and publics are invited to engage with Kungsparken as a living studio and testing ground for imagining the museum-to-come. Rather than treating the museum as a fixed container, the project approaches it as a porous, evolving ecosystem shaped by place, memory, dialogue and collective learning.

The exploration began with The Spell of New by Apparatus 22 (Maria Farcas, Dragos Olea, Erika Olea), a gathering of questions, food, singing and luminous texts reflecting on institutional change. Patiens (game) by Benedikte Bjerre, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Matti Sumari and Viktor Timofeev deals with waiting, risk and transformation through a total installation in the former casino. The installation Live the Legend by MYCKET (Mariana Alves Silva, Katarina Bonnevier, Thérèse Kristiansson) engages with Kungsparken’s layered histories through queer, feminist and ecological perspectives.

Opening in the end of November is NJOKOBOK_Recycle & Exchange by Apolonija Šušteršič, a temporary project creating a platform for exchange with the city’s diverse migrant communities. NJOKOBOK means “You are welcome! We share it!” in Wolof language. The idea grew from a collaboration between artist and architect Apolonija Šušteršič and chef Youssou Diop. The project explores food, migration, hospitality, and cultural exchange through shared meals and collective activities.

New works and encounters will continue to unfold as Malmö Konstmuseum takes shape, extending beyond the opening of the new museum.