For the first time, "Chocolate Girls" by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch leave the Freia chocolate factory to Oslo's space. It restores the history of cocoa and working conditions in its extraction, labor movements, and women's liberation in 1922.

Munch, famous for his painting "The Scream" (1893), which became an icon of modern art and a kind of "Mona Lisa" of our time, was interested in dedicating art in public spaces from his beginnings.

The 12 paintings exhibited at the Munch Museum in Oslo reflect the social context and work environment of that period, as Freia was the most famous chocolate brand in Norway and still is, considered a leading company that pays great attention to employee well-being and health.

A girl stands in front of one of the murals at the Oslo Museum - munch.no

The majority of the factory's employees were women at that time, and they were referred to as "chocolate girls". Hence, the exhibition tells the story of workers' rights and women's struggle for gender equality. It also touches on the violent and exploitative history of cocoa sources in Freia, which were first imported from South America and the Caribbean, and later from Ghana, then a British colony, as well as its marketing history.

With the temporary relocation of these works from the factory premises to the Munch Museum in Oslo, the public will be able to view them up close until October, amid renovation work at the factory, along with a wide range of sketches and other documentary and archival materials that offer a glimpse into the era in which Munch lived, the prevailing conditions at the chocolate factory, and the changing society at that time.

Exhibition curator Anna Maria Bresciani told The Guardian: "The years in which Munch worked on the Freia murals were difficult and dark years for all of Europe, especially after World War I."

She added: "The mural arrived at the factory for the first time in 1923, at a crucial time for Norwegian workers' rights, as they then gained the right to an eight-hour workday and summer holidays."

The factory management had requested those murals from the artist for the women's canteen in the factory in 1922, and they were exhibited for the first time at the National Museum in Stockholm in 1968.

The factory mural is one of only two public artworks by the artist, the second being titled "Ula", a series of paintings for a hall at the University of Oslo.

The artist was fascinated by the idea of public art. He began working on plans to produce a public artwork for the new Oslo City Hall. But he was not commissioned, and by the time it was completed, he had passed away.

Bresciani said: "He was very interested in public artworks because he believed that his art should be lived among people, and he was skilled at planning for that."

Production of Freia chocolate still largely depends on Oslo, but the company is now owned by the American food giant Mondelēz.