Based on the first person shooter Half life the collection and architecture of the museum comes alive. Armed with guns you enter to stay alive among the mutated invaders of the museum and likely destroy some of the fine art of the museum. MUSEUM MELTDOWN (1996-1999) is a series of first person shooter game reconstructions of Contemporary Art Museums. The latest one The Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.

The Making
MUSEUM MELTDOWN is a collaboration between Palle Torsson and Tobias Bernstrup. Working with the idea of the exhibition space and computer game culture the first project was done in 1996, Arken Museum of Modern Art as part Copenhagen in the exhibition Borealis 8: The Scream. Significant details of the museum were photographed and transformed to match the game. The rooms were reconstructed from architecture blueprints. The rest of the game was left untouched to keep the ethics and aesthetics of the original game. Parallel to the exhibition a homepage was build from which you were able to download the game and play the museum on you home computer.

The Contemporary Art Center of Vilnius were reconstructed in 1997 and The Modern Museum of Art in Stockholm in 1999. The version of Modern Museum of Stockholm has been shown among other places at and Biennale of Lyon and the Kunsthalle in Vienna.