Small World Real World

The pandemic leaves us in no doubt that the world has become smaller than we thought. Globalization led to unbridled cross-border flows of all kinds. Reality has become global and our day-to-day experience, the world around us, has become steadily more virtual and less tangible.

As an international museum, the Stedelijk is a global player in contemporary and modern art and design. But no matter how international, the collection is largely an agglomeration of art works by white, male, European and North American makers. The vast majority of the world is not represented.

Now 125 years old, the Stedelijk is ready for broadening, inclusion and polyphony. With more art by makers of colour, and women, with different stories and new visual languages. Small World Real World marks a new beginning for a broader, more inclusive Stedelijk. It is a sequel to the exhibition How Far How Near (2014/15), which challenged the narrow geographic focus of the museum's collection and presentation policy.

In the World But Don't Know the World by El Anatsui cries out to be included in our world and represents our world. The materials and technology are deeply rooted in reality, just like Lidén's readymades. Buhlungu has a direct and confrontational relationship to the work of filmmaker Spike Lee, Tsvetkova's drawings are an activist statement for a gender equal and LGBTQ + tolerant world. Adnan's aesthetic is entirely unique, Jungerman's visual language is a fusion of Surinamese and Dutch elements. And, somewhat removed from mundane reality, Malevich looks on from a historical vantagepoint of radical innovation.