art for all: the Stedelijk Museum's brand-new sculpture hall
It’s not back to the future for the Stedelijk Museum but rather onwards and upwards—straight to the past. Hurtling forward, in fact, to a brave new interpretation of their storied 70s sculpture garden.
In honour of Amsterdam’s 750th birthday, Rein Wolfs and his team at the Stedelijk, the city’s bastion of culture and contemporary art, decided to forgo flowers, to ditch the “done” thing. Instead, they tackled a gift so ambitious it seemed almost impossible: the creation of a striking new sculpture hall at the museum.
With a task this tough, it was lucky they weren’t in it alone. Luckily, the Don Quixote foundation happily hopped on board to help Wolfs and the Stedelijk build something special, loaning a part of its private collection to the museum. “The opening of the sculpture hall will be a defining moment for the museum and for Amsterdam’s cultural landscape. It is, in away, a digging up of collective memory,” Wolfs relays. Defining because of the power and diversity of the collection; defining also thanks to its public accessibility.
The sculpture hall is neither the only nor the first example of the Stedelijk’s commitment to originality. “Our goal has always been to reflect both tradition and the cutting-edge of artistic practice,” Wolfs muses. “This new hall lets us pay tribute to important sculptors—artists who have shaped our understanding of form—while giving a platform to those redefining the medium today. We bridge time and space, at one moment standing in front of something very aesthetic and the next looking at something that’s really quite radical. It’s a space where past, present and future coalesce.” And this coalescence is something at the core of the Don Quixote Foundation’s collection, too. Its range is sweeping, enigmatic. It’s not bounded by period or technique. The energy from works by Anne Imhof reverberates against iconic pieces by Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and Jean Arp.
Winding from era to era, style to style, piece to piece, visitors are encouraged to draw their own conclusions and construct their own narratives. The collection is not prescriptive, and its presentation toes the precarious line between accessible and provoking. What is the artist trying to tell me? What does this piece bring to mind? How do I feel when I move, swiftly or slowly, between a de Kooning and a de Saint Phalle?
And, best of all, Amsterdammers and Camusian strangers are invited to contemplate these same questions whether or not they’ve bought a ticket to the museum. Because, thanks to Paul Cournet’s design, the hall is visible from outside. Peekable by day, aglow by night, the hall is ensconced in crystal-clear glass.
Paul Cournet is not the only big name involved in the project. No, Wolfs and the Don Quixote Foundation called up a laundry list of heavy hitters to ensure they knocked things out of the park. Sabine Marcelis dreamt up distinctive aluminum seating just for the space, and Oficina, a local creative culinary studio crafted a fresh, modern dining concept for the restaurant’s new café. “All of these people, Paul and Sabine and Zana and Naiara, they’re curating. Just like we do at the museum. We wanted something different,” Wolfs divulges. It’s almost as if the city itself is reflected in this reimagined space: bold, dynamic, quirky, rooted in history.
What’s next for the Stedelijk and the sculpture hall? Big things, no doubt. Exciting, innovative ones, most certainly. “We will see how the world and the city develop over time. We’ll keep a sharp eye on the world,” Wolfs notes. They’ll stay current and evolve organically, continuing to reflect the pulse of the community no matter what they do. Shapeshifting. Metamorphosing. “Transformation is the key word for this institution.”
Hayley Daen
South Carolina bred, UK educated and Netherlands enthused, Hayley has an insatiable hunger for travel and, of course, all things delicious. A traveller as seasoned as her cast iron skillet, Hayley always knows the best spots for a tasty bite or a cheeky glass. When she's not digging up killer hole-in-the-wall falafel spots in Beirut or trying (sometimes vainly!) to find inspiring exhibitions across the globe, she's busy writing & reading.
