Moore in the Zee Zaal
Museum Beelden aan Zee, the Hague, 2022
Concept
The intention of the exhibition extension Moore in the Zee Zaal was to embody the new emerging functions, roles and responsibilities of the museum developing within the museum field. A first goal was to integrate an interactive component within the exhibition Henry Moore: Vorm en Materiaal exhibition, which was to adopt an aesthetic and less contextual display in the main exhibition hall. A next goal was to relate a major theme of the exhibition – outside/inside – to the topical issue of sustainability and the need to conserve nature. This would be achieved through integrating community partnerships into Beelden aan Zee’s exhibition program, as a form of collaboration and co-creation with non-expert voices. Lastly, it would demonstrate that Beelden aan Zee is an aware and sustainable organization, visible in the actions of its individual staff members.
Integrating Goals
Part of what makes Henry Moore: Vorm en Materiaal Unique is it’s unprecedented focus on, and presentation of Moore from a ‘form and material’ perspective. Closely tied to this is concept the museum’s idyllic location by the seaside in Scheveningen, where a plethora of natural materials and found objects can be discovered.
This connection is already described in both the project plan, marketing and education plan. In the marketing brief, it was written that one way to involve visitors is to have them participate in collecting shells, wood, and other natural materials around Scheveningen through nature walks, and in collaboration with nature-partners. In the education plan, this is described as a workshop directed towards young children and grandparents. They first receive a tour of Henry Moore: Vorm en Materiaal and then are led by a ranger into the dune to learn about the flora and fauna of the surrounding landscape while picking up natural materials along the way. Finally, they return with their materials to Studio aan Zee for an art workshop where they create sculptures with their found objects. In the education plan, emphasis is placed on encouraging visitors to view the works from their own lens, from inside the museum to outside in the dunes. It is an interactive program, that encourages audiences to create and participate. It also notes that creations from workshops will be presented in the sea room.
Unless participating in either tour, however, visitors coming to the museum will not have the opportunity to collapse – and connect – the outside with the inside. It has been demonstrated by museological scholarship that when visitors’ participation is linked to a broader goal – rather than existing as an end in itself – contribution becomes meaningful and participants feel like their voice matters. Moore in the Zee Zaal links ‘participating with found objects’ to a broader goal, by connecting the process with a selection organizations, workshops, artists and artworks with their own intrinsic purposes and goals.
Community Partnerships
While a handful of contemporary artists work from or emulate marine found-objects, Suzette Bousema is local and her method and materials are relatively reproduceable for installation and translation to the public. Future Relics (2018) relates the concept of found objects to the notion of environmental conservation by taking impressions from plastic waste. The addition of this work presents to visitors man-made found objects in an aesthetic manner, grounded in a recognized artistic practice and source through a reputable name. The artist would be invited to lead cyanotype workshops where visitors would produce prints of personally-retrieved found objects. These would be displayed alongside TrashUrehunt artworks.
“TrashUre Hunt brings environmental issues to the attention of the public in an accessible, effective and playful way. In various forms of play, groups of children, teenagers and adults hunt for litter. In addition to these activities, TrashUre Hunt provides lectures and workshops for the business community, the government and private individuals. In Craft Madness, visitors are guided to make works of art from treasures found by themselves on the beach. During the crafts, TrashUre Hunt guides talk to their clients about waste and actions individuals can take themselves to combat this issue.”
With more than 2,000 participating organizations, they have recovered huge sums of trash from the shores. TrashUre Hunt guides would be invited to give talks in the Zee Zaal as part of public programing; to explain their artistic working process, why their work matters, and what the organization does.
Natural History
Through its impressive collection, knowledge and data, Naturalis Museum records all life on Earth. For Naturalis, this is important, “as our future depends on biodiversity. Everything in nature is connected, and balance is vitally important for its continued existence. We research nature in order to preserve biodiversity. This is how we contribute to solutions for major, global issues involving climate, living environment, food supply and medicine.” Partnering with this local conservation initiative would relate the content of the exhibition, Moore drawing from nature, with the lived experience of society today. The global issue of climate change and the need to protect our planet is a thematic which affects us all, regardless across geographical location, culture or socio-economic status.
Rather than displaying a collection of found objects from visitors, the museum would secure on loan from Naturalis a glass case of rare marine specimens, antler bones and the like. The table, equipped with magnifying glasses, would encourage visitors to look more closely at the specimens as a kind of ‘cabinet of curiosity,’ very similar to the kind of display found in Moore’s Studio. Loaning specimens would allow the opportunity to present natural specimens which inspired Moore not discoverable in a sea-side setting (for example, bones).
To strengthen the dialogue and relationship between participating organizations, the museum would display artworks created through Naturalis’ scientific visitor’s workshops. On a nearby table with clay sculpting material, visitors could carry out a hands-on interactive. Here visitors would be invited to create an abstract, reduced interpretation of a found object, just as Moore took impression of, and worked from – as his starting point – found objects themselves. The chosen shells, sticks and other found objects displayed would remain in place, so that visitors and the museum could track their many and multiple artistic interpretations.
The Cabinet of Curiosities inspired design of the display directly references found objects, and the kind of permanent cabinet of Curiosities Moore had in his studio which will be communicated through selected images of the Perry Green maquette studio in the exhibition. The mirroring quality of display demonstrates the ‘two sides of the same coin’ concept; that found natural-objects and found man-made objects are equally present in our environment. By keeping the sections clearly divided, however, the museum is able to keep Moore’s work and legacy situated in the realm of real, natural materials – emphasized by the marriage of the Henry Moore clay interactive with the Naturalis Museum partnership and artifact display.