My goal today was to visit the Van Abbemuseum. I had scoped out the route to the museum the day before, so I confidently set out on my way. As I approached the city center I could tell that something was going on, there was an enticing aroma in the air. I discovered that what was previously an empty plaza had been converted into an open air market place over night. It was like stepping out of Eindhoven and into Marrakesh.
Empty plaza just hours earlier
Dried Fruits
Aromatic roasted nuts
Gorgeous Berries
Cheeeese Gromit!
Look at those carrots! Look at them!
Fresh Breads
They were baking these pastries on site
A large portion of the market place was dedicated to fabrics and notions. I didn’t think people actually sewed anymore, but these ladies were flocked around the booth like seagulls on a french fry!
Don't get between these women and the calico!
Fabrics
Buttons by the million
Glitzy Fabrics
I continued on my journey to the museum through an office park. I don’t advocate graffiti, but when it is this cute….
Giggle, giggle
The Van Abbemuseum is a museum of modern and contemporary art. You enter through in the original building, but most of the exhibits are housed in a new addition that was completed in 2003.
Entrance
Old and new sections
Upon entering you are invited to choose how you would like to tour the exhibits. I didn’t quite understand, but you received a head set and a sticker identifying you as either a Pilgrim, a Tourist, a Flaneur or a Worker; I went with the pilgrim. Here is the description of the pilgrim:
“The Pilgrim focuses on the work of art itself. Often by means of texts, he or she tries to penetrate the work of art, to reach the sublime creative moment when the artist created the work, contemplatively, testing and deepening knowledge in a quest for deeper insights and to attain a changed state of being.”
I chose it because I live near Plymouth, but ok. It seemed a bit convoluted but it wouldn’t be last thing I didn’t get.
The narration led you through the progression of exhibits, I listened somewhat. There were some works from artists that I was familiar with like Mondrian and Andy Warhol. But for the most part I just didn’t get it. I may be naive or just plain simple but when I think of art, I think of beautiful paintings and sculptures. When I see an exhibit that is just a large white room with random items placed about it, and what can only be assumed are jars of urine in various states of evaporation, I just scratch my head.
Jars of pee are thankfully out of sight
Video loop of various people breaking windows with a sling shot
Empty canvasses, hhmmmm..
And I've been looking to the Bible as my moral compass all these years, silly me!
Wood Circle
Is that H.R. Pufnstuf?
Nonsense scrawled on the wall
Oh, THIS yellow thing.
I attempted to look as though I was a thoughtful pilgrim whilst observing a film loop of a naked couple slapping each other in the face over and over, But I don’t know that I pulled it off. Jeff rescued me from my dilemma by sending me a message asking if I would like meet him for lunch. Why yes, yes I would!
On the way to meet him I came across this:
An actual Automat!
I have no clue what selections were, but cool!
We were meeting some friends for dinner so we decided to split a meal. So far we hadn’t really had any Dutch food, except for the Bitter Balls so when we saw traditional dutch lunch on the menu , we went for it.
Don't worry we didn't split the beer, we got two
Dutch Lunch
Good thing we split! Everything was really tasty, I especially liked the sunny side egg with the delightfully crispy edge, yum! There were a couple of different seafood salads, a gazpacho type soup, some sort of meatballs in gravy and a sandwich made out of Bitter Balls.
I don’t believe I achieved a “changed state of being” on my outing, but I did enjoy my experience as the Pilgrim. It’s just that this pilgrim gets more excited about beautiful orange carrots than empty canvasess.