Van Abbemuseum Vitrine: Toos Nijssen - Bij Van der Valk hotel Eindhoven

The more than 3,000 contemporary artworks in the Van Abbemuseum constitute the collection of the city of Eindhoven. These are works of art which deserve to be seen and sometimes pop up in unexpected places. Part of the museum’s collection is on display at the Van der Valk Hotel Eindhoven, designed and created by Piet Hein Eek. This display in a glass cart has a central place in the hotel lobby. Currently, work by Eindhoven -based artist Toos Nijssen is on display.

Toos Nijssen

Toos Nijssen focuses on the individual portrait as a way to attend to the world. During a time when human contact has been sorely missed, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this work offers room to think about who we are, and who we want to be after a time of silent reflection.

..en wij.. wie zijn wij.. (..and we.. who are we..) (2005) consists of more than ten silent hours of interviews, that the artist conducted with 120 individuals in a booth she set up in Woensel market, Eindhoven. Participants sit silently in a meditative state before the camera for ten minutes to, the artist hopes “disappear their masks”, and arrive at a home within.

Sixteen years on, Nijssen has developed another recipe for internal listening in publishing watercolour drawings daily via social media for 200 days in 2020, each accompanied by a chosen song. She Is a Rainbow is amoung the introspective experiments from the series Two Hundred Days of Drawing(2020), and has been included in the publication with the same name.

Nijssen’s silent video work and daily drawing practice should not be mistaken for escapism or disengagement – they are the pause required before action.