Longread — Jan 14, 2022

The Stedelijk Museum concludes its 125th anniversary with the publication of the first issue of Szine, a regular zine that publishes new research on various aspects of the museum. Each edition explores an aesthetic, ethical or social issue of topical interest to the Stedelijk. Together with Stedelijk Studies, an online peer-reviewed scholarly platform, Szine will also act as a catalyst to bring research at the Stedelijk to a wider audience.

You can download Szine #1 for free here:
Download Szine (PDF)

Over Szine #1

For the inaugural issue, the Stedelijk commissioned cultural historian Nancy Jouwe to conduct research into the cultural and financial circumstances surrounding the founding of the museum. Articles have already been published on other aspects of the museum’s history, such as the building and the formation of the collection. It was common knowledge that a group of wealthy local citizens found the Stedelijk as a museum of modern and contemporary art and design. Yet, a lack of clarity concerning the origin of the funds, and difficulties involved in contextualising their cultural and historical links, often drew speculation. Besides the article by Nancy Jouwe, the Szine also contains an interview between Yvette Mutumba, curator at large at the Stedelijk, and director Rein Wolfs, about Jouwe’s findings, and the future of the museum.

With the title The Stedelijk: A Museum in Imperial Amsterdam, Jouwe places the Stedelijk Museum in the cultural-historical context of the late 19th century. She describes how the wealth gained in colonised countries was used to project an aura of cultural discernment, aided and endorsed by an ambitious city council government. Jouwe’s article can be read in tandem with the editorial by Maurice Rummens, in Stedelijk Studies Journal issue 11, on the material history of the museum, and the editorial by Yvette Mutumba on the current European social environment of museums.

A small print edition of Szine will be on sale in the museum shop, and available online, free, in PDF.

Now online: Stedelijk Studies 11

The Stedelijk’s debut issue of Szine is accompanied by the publication of Stedelijk Studies 11 in response to an Open Call about the museum’s 125th anniversary. 

Contents: - Yvette Mutumba and Maurice Rummens, The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam at 125 Years (editorials); - Fabienne Chiang, After(-)Images: Problematizing Collections of Early Documentary and Anthropological Photography in the Art Museum in the Postcolonial Age; - Gülce Özkara, Space, Movement, and Body: Marlow Moss; - Joanna Mardal, Revisiting Wim Beeren’s European Utopia: Wanderlieder Thirty Years Later; - Ali T. As’ad, (Re)collections, (De)collections, and the People Curatorial; - Oscar Ekkelboom, Exhibiting Surinamese Histories of Art: Curatorial Approaches Towards Diversity; - Najiba Yasmin, In All Fairness: An Exploration of Ethical Collaborative Practices; - Deiara Kouto and Anne Bielig, From Fiction tot Knowledge, Unveiling histories in contemporary cultural institutions (addendum); - Mariana Lanari, Reading as Sculpture: A new layer for the library in ruins (artist’s contribution).

The articles can be read on the website of Stedelijk Studies, the Stedelijk’s online international peer-reviewed academic research platform.