Museum as Sundial

What if a museum could function like a sundial? Not simply marking time, but helping us understand our place in the world. Conceived by director Defne Ayas as an exercise in reorientation, Museum as Sundial brings together contemporary art, design, archaeology, play and collective ways of learning and living.

This autumn, the Van Abbemuseum presents Museum as Sundial. Opening during Dutch Design Week, the project takes the sundial as both an ancient technology and a contemporary design proposition: a way of connecting our bodies, our buildings and our communities to the movement of the sun, the ground beneath our feet and the world beyond the museum walls.

A Museum in Relation to the Sun

Ninety years ago, the Van Abbemuseum’s building was designed in relation to the sun. Its architecture responded to cycles of light and shadow. Over time, renovations and changing uses have hidden traces of this original design. Museum as Sundial returns to this relationship with the sun to ask a contemporary question: how might a museum help us find our way in a period of profound social, technological and ecological change?

Finding New Ways to Orient Ourselves

“A sundial represents both sky and ground. Museum as Sundial asks how our ancestors and earlier societies understood their place in relation to the sun, the ground and one another. Inspired by the architecture of our building from 90 years ago, we ask how we, collectively as a team and as a museum rooted in the city of Eindhoven, might develop new forms of deviation and orientation for the next decade. Rather than looking only inward or forward only, together with a cohort of great artists and designers, we return to one of humanity’s oldest technologies for finding direction: the sun. The sun is not only a measure of time and direction, but also a form of energy, a force that connects the celestial and the earthly” — Defne Ayas, Director, Van Abbemuseum

The Museum as a Sundial

From ancient sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Tiel and Stonehenge to contemporary architecture and urban planning, the sun has long helped societies understand their position in time and space. At the Van Abbemuseum, the building itself becomes a sundial. The central gallery acts as a point of orientation. From there, the surrounding galleries extend outward like vectors, connecting artworks and ideas to locations across Eindhoven and far beyond.

Artists, Designers and Contributors

Artists, designers and System Thinkers include Ana María Millán, ADEZIV Network, EDHV, Kiki & Joost, Adele Dipasquale, Gala Porras-Kim, Michael Portnoy, Paul Panhuysen, Ayumi Paul, Ei Arakawa-Nash and John Körmeling. Archival and collection material includes works from the Rhoda Kellogg International Child Art Collection, ABC books by artists, the National Archive of Brabant Folk Songs, and mandala drawings by Anne Frank on loan from Anne Frank Huis. Spatial design is by Studio Diogo Passarinho, with a graphic design intervention by Studio Remco van Bladel.

Curatorial credits

Directed by Defne Ayas, collectively inspired and generated. Coordinated by Abril Cisneros Ramírez (Assistant Curator, developed with generous generous input from Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, (Senior Curator, Steven ten Thije (Head of Collection and current Interim Business Director], Maziar Afrassiabi (Curator), among others, the project is developed in dialogue with the museum team, including the museum choir and volunteers. Special thanks to Anne Frank Museum, Boekenberg Eindhoven, Christian van der Linde, Helène and Raphael Panhuysen, Magda Boutique Eindhoven, Nico Arts, and The Watermill Center.