News — Nov 25, 2024

Performance (outside) - Saturday 30 November, 10.30 a.m.
Bathtub lecture (auditorium) - Saturday 30 November, 3-6 p.m.

What will the museum of the future look like?

During the third Bathtub Lecture, on 30 November at 3 p.m., artist Renzo Martens excavates the foundations of the Stedelijk Museum and presents a vision for a shared future. Martens, together with Ced’art Tamasala, founder of Congolese artists’ collective Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise, or CATPC, will discuss the role of communities of plantation workers and their co-authorship of the museum.

Renzo Martens and the CATPC are representing the Netherlands at this year’s Venice Biennale. In a forward-looking lecture, Tamasala and Martens probe the Stedelijk Museum’s underlying structures, followed by outlining a shared future in which the museum is by and for everyone. 

EXPOSING THE INSTITUTION’S FOUNDATIONS  
Martens draws inspiration from an iconic work by artist Jan Dibbets from the 1969 group show Op losse schroeven (an idiomatic Dutch expression that translates literally as ‘on loose screws’), in which Dibbets questioned the role of the museum and the conventional experience of art. Dibbets dug trenches at each corner of the building to expose the museum’s foundations and symbolically place the Stedelijk on a pedestal. By offering visitors a disruptive experience, he challenged the traditional relationship between art and its audiences. On 30 November 2024, at 10.30 a.m., before the Bathtub Lecture, Renzo Martens will dig deeper into one of the corners of the Stedelijk Museum. Martens’ partial re-enactment of Jan Dibbets’ historic work aims to delve further into the museum’s foundations.

Renzo Martens, photo: Max Pinckers

RECOGNITION OF THE PAST
Martens says: “Workers are co-authors of the Stedelijk. This awareness can form the basis for a museum that is by and for everyone.”

Communities of plantation workers were forcibly put to work on plantations during the colonial era. The museum was built on profits derived from forced labour and speculation on potential future earnings. The perspectives of these communities are not reflected in the workings of the museum. Martens argues that the cultural narrative has little meaning unless these communities are also included in the Stedelijk.

Ced’art Tamasala will talk about his recent visit to these plantations in Indonesia. As far as Tamasala was able to determine, no Stedelijk Museum curator in recent history has visited the communities on these plantations to see who they are and what they do. Tamasala will share his thoughts on the expectations that communities such as these, and his own, the CATPC, have for the museum’s future. 

After the lecture, Nous Faes, owner of The Sociological Studio for Policy and Research, will comment on the points raised by Martens and Tamasala from her perspective. Finally, Tamasala, Martens and Faes will join in a conversation with director Rein Wolfs and the audience, moderated by Aldith Hunkar.

BATHTUB LECTURE
The Bathtub Lecture is an annual tradition in which thinkers and makers explore issues currently at stake in the international art world. Last year, Kader Attia discussed concepts of time and slowing down.

Ced'art Tamasala