Amsterdam | Suspended Histories exhibition

The Museum Van Loon hosts the contemporary art exhibition Suspended Histories. Artists from Asia and the Netherlands have been invited to reflect on the role of the Van Loon family in the Dutch East India Company, and present contemporary works in the context of a historic 17th century Amsterdam canal house. For years it has been the wish of the Museum Van Loon to explore the role the family has had in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Willem van Loon (1537-1618) was one of the co-founders and his son Hans van Loon (1577-1658) was the longest serving governor. Today the VOC’s history is seen as controversial. Unfortunately nearly no historical material survived. The museum is therefore very pleased with the initiative of Philippa van Loon to invite Thomas Berghuis to curate this exhibition in which eleven contemporary artists reflect on the VOC past of Museum Van Loon. Dr Thomas Berghuis is a researcher and specialist of Asian art and has recently been appointed The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation curator of Chinese art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The artists have various relationships to the Dutch East India Company as they come from regions where the VOC traded. Museum Van Loon has deliberately decided to present this exhibition in 2013, the year of the 400th anniversary of Amsterdam’s major canals and the commemoration of the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands 150 years ago. Philippa van Loon manages to connect the historic house with the present through contemporary art. The works in this exhibition inspire to reflect and shed new light on this sensitive aspect of the Van Loon's VOC history in particular and that of the Netherlands in general. The exhibition runs 5 October 2013 - 20 January 2014 Participating artists in Suspended Histories are: Tiong Ang (1961, Indonesia, currently living in Amsterdam), Arahmaiani (1961, Indonesia, currently living in Yogyakarta), Simryn Gill (1959, Singapore, currently living both in Sydney and Port Dickson, Malaysia), Ni Haifeng (1964, China, currently living in Amsterdam), Newell Harry (1972, Australia, currently living in Sydney), Yee I-Lann (1971, Malaysia, currently living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Mella Jaarsma (1960, Emmeloord, currently living in Yogyakarta), Donna Ong (1978, Singapore, currently living in Singapore), Lisa Reihana (1964, New-Zealand, currently living in Auckland, New-Zealand), Fiona Tan (1966, Indonesia, currently living in Amsterdam) and Titarubi (1968, Indonesia, currently living in Yogyakarta). Read more about the exhibition