The people behind the museum: Charles Esche

What is their background? What does art mean to them? And what fascinates them? In this column, meet the staff of the Van Abbemuseum. Charles Esche kicks off the series. As director since 2004, he has been responsible for the museum's artistic content development.

He comes from a family that has no specific relation to art, but for Charles Esche it is a way of imagining the world. Underexposed stories, unexpected collaborations and urgent social themes recur time and again in his practice. At the end of this year, he is stepping down as director of the Van Abbemuseum after 20 years. His last exhibition Soils, the capstone of his career in Eindhoven, can be seen until 8 December 2024: "Art stimulates mutual understanding. It brings people together who otherwise don't find each other. Like artists and farmers in Soils."

Thinking freely

"In the mid-80s, I went to university, the first in my family. It was a place where I could develop my personal interests, where I learned to imagine. Not to arrive at a result within a predetermined framework, but to think freely. I love difficult questions: if I don't know an answer, my imagination comes into play. With thoughts and ideas you create possibilities. There is also a social ambition behind that: how can I use that imagination to leave the world no worse off than when I stepped in?"

Rewrite

"Twenty years ago I joined the Van Abbemuseum, a place outside the Randstad where I could play. I saw the museum as a tool: what can it do for the arts? And what does it offer Eindhoven, a technical and rational city? We have a modern art collection that is more or less repeated in other Dutch museums. But we use it precisely to tell the underexposed stories: not only Pablo Picasso, but also Wifredo Lam. If we don't continuously rewrite history, there will be stagnation."

Connection

"Similarly, we are critical of the museum's own colonial history and collection. We tell that story in the recently opened exhibition Hidden Connections, part of the multi-sensory collection presentation Delinking and Relinking. So as a museum, we have a social mission. Each zeitgeist wrestles with its own issues. Currently, colonialism, climate and diversity are pressing issues. We have to learn to connect again, not only with other people, but also with animals and plants."

Soils

"This is also at the heart of my latest exhibition Soils. The common denominator of all living things on earth is soil. What if we brought together the different experiences of international artists, designers, farmers and activists in one art project? The works all show a different aspect of soil: a traditional Mayan house made from materials from the region of Noord-Brabant, bricks from the museum's facade moved inside and weaving projects that encourage thinking and doing from the natural environment."

No heimat

"As for my own relationship with the soil, I am still searching. I am a son of German migrants who moved to England, grew up in Scotland, lived in Sweden and then 20 years in the Netherlands. I have no heimat. I look with admiration at the connection Aboriginal communities and farmers from Noord-Brabant have with the land: I don't know that feeling myself. Modernity has removed us from the earth. We live in architecture that has no connection to the place where it stands. Concrete is like ultra-processed food: extremely processed earth in which the loose ingredients are nullified."

Hopeful

"We exploit the soil while looking the other way. It's like a butcher's shop: we want to eat meat, but not watch a cow being slaughtered. Yet Soils is not a gloomy exhibition. It shows visitors that there is still hope to change our relationship with soil. A tip on how to start that process today? Go outside, take off your shoes, stand on the ground and feel. Stopping exploiting the earth will not make us poorer, but rather richer in other resources: namely experiences and connection."

Charles’ favourites

Favourite work in the collection

"Proud Rebels, the embroidered portrait series by patricia kaersenhout. Philomena Essed, Gloria Wekker and Ernestine Comvalius: these black women taught me what it means to be in the Netherlands and to question our country's history."

Favourite Van Abbemuseum exhibition

"Perhaps not the best exhibition ever, but Vormen van Verzet (2007-2008) was a first attempt to rewrite history. At the time, the exhibition was not fully understood, these themes were not yet playing on a larger scale." 

Favourite spot in the museum

"Whew, that's a tough one! I'm not so tied to architecture, but choose the hall in the Old Building. There I can be concealed and people-watch at the same time."

Tip: emerging artist

"That's Christina Flores Pescoran. Her work is about healing. We as humans are so damaged right now. Care and recovery is what we need and art can provide that. Her work will be on display in Positions #8: Art is a Verb which opens in December 2024."

Tip: museum you must have visited

"The Museum of African Art in Belgrade."