Volkskrant asked four acclaimed exhibition makers to fantasize about the ideal exhibition. As a replacement for the quiet walk through the museum.
Volkskrant, November 21st, 2014
By Rutger Pontzen
Image / scale models Hilde Harshagen
The seducers
Suppose you get 50 thousand euros from one or another fund. And you can use that money to think of the ideal presentation of a work of art. One that will involve the museum visitor more in the work, will not leave him untouched, inspires, makes you think. A presentation in short that the visitor will remember for weeks. Which artwork do you choose? And how is it shown?
The reason for the question is De Grote Kunstshow (The great art show), which will be held for the second time in the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg on Sunday November 30th. The art show is and initiative of art advisor Johan Idema, in collaboration with the Stadsschouwburg. Once again this year it will show a varied range of artworks from the Rabobank collection to the public in a new, surprising way. Featured with spotlight, accompanied by music, with spoken texts. Assuming that art can be exhibited differently and better than at eye level, against the usual white museum wall, where everyone stays at most a minute, on the way to the next work of art, and ultimately the museum café.
Experiments with other forms of presentation will, according to Idema, stimulate the senses of the visitor and increase the intensity of looking at art. It will also reveal surprising features of the artwork that normally remain concealed. The Great Art Show last year proved that something like that in theatrical setting, on the stage of a theater, came out well. As there were paintings that were accompanied by appropriate disco music from a DJ. But the question remains whether this way of presenting and experimenting is also possible in the museum. And what that looks like then. De Volkskrant asked three museum directors and an exhibition maker, Sjarel Ex, Ralph Keuning, Andreas Blühm and Hanne Hagenaars to come up with an imaginative and stimulating proposal. How do we make art more attractive and tempting in the way of diversity?
Great Art Show 2014. Stadsschouwburg. Amsterdam. 30/11, at 11.00, 14.00, 16.00 and 20.00.
Ralph Keuning about Mondriaan in the animation: An enchanting experience, just an acid trip.
Ralph Keuning, director of Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle
The director of De Fundatie does not have to think twice. Piet Mondriaan. His painting ‘Row of eleven poplars in red, yellow, blue and green’ from 1908. Beautiful landscape. Luminescent, as if it gives light. Ralph Keuning would most like to combine that painting by Mondrian with video work by Elise van der Linden, Ozon. Keuning describes: It is an animation as if you are flying straight across the landscape towards the setting sun, which is not setting. In a fleeting way, forests, rocks, seas pass under you, while time seems to stand still. Keuning calls the experience a time vacuum. Everything is submerged in an orange, blood-red light. It is like in a landscape of Casper David Friedrich, with the forests and the chalk cliffs of Rugen. Very romantic. Mondrian’s painting must be placed on a transparent base, on the stage. A wall-filling projection of Van der Linden’s video is added on top of that. Keuning: You reinforce the experience through that combination. An enchanting effect. Just like an acid trip. Also through the up tempo soundtrack Guitar and computer sounds, minimalist as Philip Glass. All in all, it gives a hallucinatory feeling.
The general image of Mondriaan, according to Keuning, is that of the distant painter, someone who makes inscrutable work. But his paintings also have something flamboyant. Something sensual. Elise’s video helps you to emphasize that attraction. As if you can suddenly crawl into Mondriaan’s landscape.
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