Art

Dutch visual and performing arts, as well as buildings and design, tell the story of our country. A country that is open to collaboration and that comes up with innovative solutions. At Dutch Dubai, art boosted innovation. Take a look at the collections and exhibitions that were shown at the Netherlands pavilion.

 

Birthe Leemeijer (was part of permanent collection)

Birthe Leemeijer sought to capture the spirit of one of the oldest polders in the Netherlands and came up with a perfume named L’Essence de Mastenbroek triggering both memory and imagination. According to her, scent has the power to transport us to a time and place beyond images and words.

Joep van Lieshout (was part of permanent collection)

©Joep van Lieshout
The series of clocks by Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) reminded us that time is precious and implied the end of time itself or at least the conclusion of our current era and its destructive dynamics. The clocks acted like humanity’s alarm clock.

Kadir van Lohuizen (exhibition)

Kadir van Lohuizen documented the impact of human activity on our planet and its climate. The effects of the climate crisis are the subject of Kadir’s photo series Rising Tide. It represents the human stories behind the data on melting ice sheets, salinisation of agricultural land and disappearing islands.

Theo Jansen (part of National Day celebrations)

©2013 Plaudens Vela/Marco Zwinkels/Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen has created a whole new species cost efficiently using only plastic tubes, wind and his own imagination. For over 30 years he has been building generations of new species that will eventually survive its creator and continue to evolve on its own. They are tested on the beaches of the Hague. Hence the name: Strandbeesten meaning beach beasts.

Berndnaut Smilde (part of National Day celebrations)

Berndnaut Smilde has mastered the art of indoor cloud making. His meteorological manipulations force guests to take a better look at the environment and consider what’s real. The clouds last just a few moments. They live on in the pictures he takes of them, which are, in his opinion, the real artworks


Image: ©Berndnaut Smilde

Eef de Graaf (exhibition)

 ©Eef de Graaf
Documentary filmmaker Eef de Graaf took stock of the Netherlands’ testing grounds for the transition to a sustainable society: innovation driven by an increasing sense of urgency.

Vilma Henkelman (was part of permanent collection)

Her ceramics are an exploration of life in clay. They are about connecting with the world’s most basic material and being in the moment and conversing directly with the earth. The work on display at the pavilion dates from Henkelman’s formative period in the late 1970s and early 1980s.