Amsterdam Museum and Festival of Light

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Lauren Ewing: Light Wave

On one of our evening strolls around Amsterdam, we came across this light sculpture which we discovered was part of an annual Light Festival. Best visited by canal boat, we booked up for a couple of nights later. We knew we were likely to get cold and wet in the evening so looked for somewhere dry and warm during the day, and decided to visit the Amsterdam Museum.

Gateway
Orphan’s cupboards
Courtyard

Until 1960, the building housing the museum was an orphanage. In one of the courtyards, shown above, you can see the cupboards that the children used to store their possessions, now filled with art. I wasn’t too taken with the main body of the museum which had been revamped since our last visit to provide (according to Lonely Planet) a “multi-media DNA exhibit, which breaks down Amsterdam’s 1000-year history into seven whiz-bang time periods”. Whiz-bang is not really me, and I also found the red and white timeline wall difficult to focus on.

The Civic Guard Gallery in the arcade next door was more interesting – you could both look down on it from inside the museum and enter (free of charge) from street level. On view are original group portraits, made between 1530 and 2007 by artists such as Bartholomeus van der Helst and Erwin Olaf, as well as Goliath, a 350-year-old wooden giant. From what I remember about the colourful carpet, I think each square represented a different country and we were able to find Scotland from the key.

Goliath
Civic Guard Gallery
Civic Guard Gallery

We did, indeed, get very cold and wet on the way to the (open) boat, but fortunately the rain went off so we were “only” freezing cold during the 75 minute tour of the 35 light sculptures. Here’s a selection of my favourites – this first one is a general view of how busy the canal was, but it also shows one of the installations. Ai Weiwei’s Thinline (the red lights) ran the whole length of the route.

Ai Weiwei: Thinline

You might recognise some of the buildings in the next two images from an earlier post – the funny little roof-creatures outside the library, and NEMO Science Museum. The pyramid is Infinita by Cecil Balmond. In A necessary darkness, Rona Lee chose to invert the norm by projecting a lighthouse beaming out darkness onto NEMO’s wall.

Balmond Studio: Infinita
Rona Lee: A necessary darkness

Claudia Reh created a large projection, It was once drifting on the water, on the façade of the Hermitage Museum in collaboration with local primary school children. Myth by Ben Zamora is a grid of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines which light up in different combinations at different speeds.

Claudia Reh: It was once drifting on the water
Ben Zamora: Myth

Eye to eye by Driton Selmani represents a giant nazar amulet that protects people, animals, and objects from the evil eye. If you’ve been to Turkey, you are probably familiar with it – we have one hanging in our bathroom. Whole hole, by Wendel & de Wolf, was probably my favourite installation: it was exciting to be drawn through it into the tunnel.

Driton Selmani: Eye to eye
Vendel & de Wolf: Whole hole

Lifeline by Claes Meijer was interesting: it showed the waves of sound which a boat engine makes underwater, so changed as we passed it. Lynne Leegte’s Windows are probably self-explanatory!

Claes Meijer: Lifeline
Lynne Leegte: Windows

Floating on a thousand memories (Lighting Design Academy) achieved its effect by reflecting small lights in the water and in mirrors on the water’s edge. The next sculpture is prettier than its title – The life of a slime mold. it’s an enlargement of the mucus fungus by Nicole Banowetz. Nice!

Lighting Design Academy: Floating on a thousand memories
Nicole Banowetz: the life of a slime mold

The final pairing is Citygazing: Amsterdam (VOUW) and Be the change that you want to see in the world by Bagus Pandega. The former is a giant light map of the city. The latter scrolls one of Gandhi’s most famous quotes – I think you can just make out see in the passing by. A good motto to live by.

My goodness, were we shivering when we got to this point! We were happy to find a cosy pizza restaurant and then head back to the warmth of our apartment.

Vouw: Citygazing : Amsterdam
Bagus Pandega: Be the change that you wish to see in the world

This is my last post about Amsterdam itself – for the moment: we’ll be back again later in the year. However, we took a couple of day trips out of the city, so stay tuned for tours of Haarlem and Utrecht.

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55 Comments »

  1. What an interesting collection of light installations you have featured here. In terms of visual aesthetics, I really like the Claudia Rey piece done with school children. With respect to the conceptual aspect, I love the idea of a light map of the city, the light tunnel, Weiwei’s Thinline.

    Jude

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  2. That canal boat trip through all the light installations looks amazing, Anabel, despite the cold. Your photos came out so well. I have one of those eyes from Turkey as well. In my five boxes of souvenirs in Belgium… 🙂 I’ve never been to Haarlem, but Utrecht is a cute little town I really enjoyed strolling through.

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  7. I really like Goliath! The lights are pretty, but not so amazing that I would have been willing to freeze on a boat for them, so I’m glad you went so I know I can safely skip it if the weather’s bad if I ever happen to be in Amsterdam at that time of year!

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  8. What gorgeous lights! I hate being cold (I’m a big baby about it) but that looks well worth it. Maybe they should think about having their annual light festival in the summer (but I imagine it stays light too late then). 🙂

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    • I can be cold if I know it’s time limited and for a purpose – I was still glad when this was over, even though it was lovely! The thought about having it later in the year occurred to me, before I realised the flaw.

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  9. An interesting experience but I’m afraid it would be too cold for me 😦 I’d love to see Amsterdam but it would have to be in much warmer weather.

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  11. Good compilation of Amsterdam photos. Same here, I’m always moved more by the simplest and understated of touches in exhibits rather than the modern trend to make everything interactive/ sexy/ exciting that usually means the exact opposite for me- a total disconnect into a sterile experience with little empathy for the subject matter involved.

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  16. The light displays on the evening canal are absolutely stunning. Another place for my bucket list!

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  19. Brrr. Though it was wonderful to see the light festival, I would not have enjoyed being cold and wet for 75 minutes! You were brave to go out. It looks interesting though. The pizza after must have been welcome. 🙂

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  20. Hi Anabel – you made me feel cold describing it … but I’m quite certain it was worth it and something I’d love to see. I’ve had this slime mold posting sitting here – and I’d like to write about it – but as the A-Z is here probably won’t … but the post is here should you wish to see what advantages there are to slime!!

    http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/slime-molds-crack-3-of-the-biggest-issues-in-the-us

    I found it fascinating … and I look forward to more of your tours – cheers Hilary

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  22. What a great way to watch a light show, though your fingers must have been frozen taking all the photos. Oh, I forgot. HIS fingers must have been freezing. Tell him thank you from me 🙂

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  24. The light exhibition looks amazing. I’m a bit of a magpie when it comes to sparkly lights. This would be just my cup of tea. I find slime mounds fascinating so that’s definitely my favourite. I hope you felt it was worth all the shivering. I look forward to seeing what you make of Haarlem and Utrecht. I remember liking the latter (I haven’t been to the Netherlands since 1993!) but I found Haarlem to be too rough around the edges. It reminded me far too much of home in Glenrothes I think. I loved Amsterdam and Delft though.

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