The Allard Pierson Museum opens its doors again for the DWDD Pop-Up Museum, part two this time. Guest curators, including theoretical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf, dived into the depots together with museum experts. They have set up their own room with 'hidden treasures', the theme of the Pop-Up Museum. Kennislink walks through his room with the professor.
The Pop-Up Museum of De Wereld Draait Door can be found on the first floor of the Allard Pierson Museum, the archeology museum of the University of Amsterdam. As you enter the stately building, marble steps lead you to the rooms of the Pop-Up Museum. Here you will find thirteen museums in one exhibition with diverse themes and objects.
The thirteen participating museums and nine guest curators differ from each other like night and day. Beatrice de Graaf, for example, uses paintings, photographs and prostheses to show the life and suffering of soldiers. Sander van de Pavert of Lucky TV chose paintings by the Oranjes from the depot of the Mauritshuis and added a Willy &Max audio tour.
Forgotten science
History of science can be found in the room of Robbert Dijkgraaf, who was allowed to browse the depots of the Teylers Museum and Museum Boerhaave. He founded, with the help of curators, a true Wunderkammer in:a cabinet of curiosities like the ones collectors from the Golden Age had in their homes. Full of wonderful and exotic items such as fossils, minerals, shells, dead animals and instruments. Dijkgraaf himself has also dusted off some outdated and therefore obsolete scientific instruments for his Wunderkammer, such as a small but beautifully decorated microscope, an enormous model of a papier-mâché ear, a prism… Kennislink is curious about the how and why of his choices .
In Dijkgraaf style, the professor starts off enthusiastically:“It was not so much about what I liked best, I wanted to breathe new life into objects that museums can no longer use. There are huge collections that were once very important, objects that someone has taken an incredible amount of care with. These objects have been important for the development of science, but are now obsolete and are gathering dust in depots. Now this material can play the leading role for once.”
Dijkgraaf's room also looks like a cabinet. It is dark there and there are tall wooden cabinets next to the display cases. I stand next to him in front of a display case with all kinds of glass devices, magnets with candle holders and more of that beauty. Dijkgraaf:“I could have taken 10,000 of these types of instruments with me, there are that many in the depots of the Boerhaave. There is not one that stands out, but they are all small works of art. Look at that glassware, with how much care it was made. Now we can no longer use them as an instrument and they have all been forgotten. We don't even know if they still do it…”
Play with formation
The theme for this Wunderkammer is the enormous love with which everything is made. Love, care and eye for detail. But didn't Dijkgraaf want to show the changes in the history of science? “You might expect that, but I consciously chose not to. That is why the objects are not arranged chronologically, but according to theme. For example these dragons.”
He walks quickly to a display case and begins to tell, gesturing broadly. "Look how cute. Here you can see a fossil that is millions of years old, a dragon in spirit from the nineteenth century and drawings of skeletons from the seventeenth century. Of course they are not really dragons, but at that time they still thought that dragons existed and looked like this. By drawing existing skeletons in a certain pose, you immediately see a dragon in them! Normally these objects would never be together in a museum.”
Dijkgaaf wanted to play with the latter. By putting everything together, the professor has tried to create an arrangement that was self-evident in the time of the cabinets of curiosities. Is that still possible, with all the knowledge we have today? “I am curious about that. I also want to tell the visitors that they should forget for a moment what they know and how old the objects are that are here. Look at those details and at what the relationship is between the objects that are now suddenly together. For example, this million-year-old fossil of a sea lily and this tulip drawing from the seventeenth century. The tulips are made with a care that you can no longer imagine. That accuracy in every line and leaf.”
“The details mattered enormously, because science and the observation of nature were very close at that time. Details are therefore shown to better understand what is depicted. At the same time, you can see in those details the enormous love for the subject. The maker really wanted to understand the object, down to the smallest details. Now that you see the drawing and the fossil together, you suddenly notice that nature paints with the same detailed brush. All objects in this room are in conversation with each other. They are mixed up in a way that is normally not allowed and I find that very liberating.”
When I ask him about his favourite, Dijkgraaf starts laughing. “I am especially happy with the sawtooth shark, which hangs from the ceiling. There was often a stuffed crocodile in the Wunderkammer, so I wanted one too, but unfortunately, it wasn't available in the depot. We did find this ancient sawtooth shark. Doesn't it look like a glued wad of paper mache and adhesive tape? In this special beast, the four themes that you also find in a Wunderkammer come together:art, technology, young and old nature, and all of this next to each other. It's a fish but with a coupler, a living tool. It looks like a living fossil, but on the other hand it could hang in the Stedelijk Museum as modern art.”