Opening Museum as Sundial

What if a museum could function like a sundial?

Ninety years ago, the Van Abbemuseum’s original building (1936) was designed in relation to the sun. Museum as Sundial returns to this architectural condition to ask how a museum might help us find direction amid profound social, technological and ecological change.

Opening during Dutch Design Week (17-25 October), Museum as Sundial takes one of humanity’s oldest technologies for orientation as both its starting point and organising principle. A sundial connects sky and ground, translating the movement of the sun into shifting patterns of light and shadow.

The presentation brings together work by artists and designers Adele Dipasquale, Ana María Millán, EDHV, Ei Arakawa-Nash, Gala Porras-Kim, John Körmeling, Kiki & Joost, Michael Portnoy and Paul Panhuysen, alongside the System Thinkers ADEZIV Network and Ayumi Paul.

Archival and collection material includes works from the Rhoda Kellogg International Child Art Collection, the Karin and Bernd Fessel ABC artist books for children, the National Archive of Brabant Folk Songs, and mandala drawings by Anne Frank on loan from the Anne Frank House. Spatial design is by Studio Diogo Passarinho, with a graphic design intervention by Studio Remco van Bladel.

Opening programme

14:00    Opening remarks by Defne Ayas, Director

14:30    Van Abbemuseum Choir with Ayumi Paul

The Van Abbemuseum Choir performs with artist and inaugural System Thinker Ayumi Paul, whose contribution to Museum as Sundial explores voice, the sun, celestial time and collective listening.

Followed by Michael Portnoy — The Fifth Place
Participating artist Michael Portnoy leads audiences into The Fifth Place, a live score and social experiment in which language, gesture, conceptual framing and etiquette become material for inventing new forms of togetherness. Separate registration is required for The Fifth Place.

11:00-18:00     Honey Honey Tattoo × ADEZIV Network

Throughout the day, Honey Honey Tattoo lands at the museum with tattoo artists Cédric de Rodot and Tattoo Willie. For the occasion, they have created an exclusive series of flash tattoos inspired by works in Museum as Sundial, including Lost Marbles Industries by ADEZIV Network, part of our inaugural System Thinkers cohort. A chance to leave the opening carrying a piece of the exhibition with you—quite literally under your skin.