Delinking and Relinking
Curated by Charles Esche, Diana Franssen & Steven ten Thije, Organized by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. September 2021-June 2025.
Featuring 120 pieces of art and spanning all five floors of the museum’s collection wing, Delinking and Relinking invites you to experience art differently. Sometimes in the literal sense, by touching, smelling or listening to it; other times metaphorically, by giving expression to different, lesser-known voices. Mostly inspiring and occasionally confrontational, Delinking and Relinking spans more than a century of art history, with Hommage à Apollinaire by Marc Chagall from 1913 as earliest work and This Means Tableau from 2019 by Laure Prouvost as most recent work.
With over 25 multi-sensory tools, including texts in Braille, scent interpretations, tactile drawings and soundscapes, Delinking and Relinking represents the first, fully multi-sensory collection display in the Netherlands. Besides enriching the museum experience for everyone, the exhibition is accessible to a wide audience, including visually or hearing-impaired visitors and wheelchair users.
Artists: Tjong Ang, Willem Adams, Karel Appel, Rasheed Araeen, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Gam Bodenhausen, Boudry / Lorenz, stanley brouwn, Jean Brusselmans, Marc Chagall, Chryssa, Céline Condorelli, René Daniëls, Hanne Darboven, Ad Dekkers, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Nilbar Güreş, Lubaina Himid, Isaac Israëls, Sanja Iveković, Patricia Kaersenhout, Gülsün Karamustafa, Karrabing Film Collective, Toon Kelder, Iris Kensmil, John Körmeling, Theo Kuijpers, Wifredo Lam, Fernand Léger, El Lissitzky, Lucebert, Joan Miró, László Moholy Nagy, Piet Mondriaan, Nabuurs&VanDoorn, Ahmet Ögüt, Otobong Nkanga, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Rodan Omomá, Gabriel Orozsco, Pieter Ouborg, Alicia Penalba, Constant Permeke, Stijn Peeters, Pablo Picasso, Wim van der Plas, Marjetica Potrc, Laure Prouvost, Michael Rakowitz, Gé Röling, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jan Schoonhoven, Ad Snijders, Mariëlle Soons, Pieter Stoop, Lily van der Stokker, Elly Strik, Koki Tanaka, Charley Toorop, Roy Villevoye, Evi Vingerling, Henk Visch, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, Ossip Zadkine and Qui Zhijie.
Queer Desire is Wild; I am a Deer (2014)
Exhibition view from Delinking and Relinking, Van Abbemuseum.
Photo credit: Joep Jacobs