The Museum is Multiple: Van Abbemuseum 2004-24

The Museum Is Multiple tells the recent history of the Van Abbemuseum. The book is a case study and an illustrated archive of Charles Esche’s directorship from 2004–2024. It contains two critical, reflective conversations among past and present senior members of the curatorial team. During the past twenty years, the museum has had to negotiate social changes that have affected art and artists and altered the ways that the 20th century collection is narrated and perceived. The changes include Western Europe’s cultural response to the demise of socialism, the rise of populism and fascism, and the growing influence of decolonial thinking. In response, the museum sought to restore the production context to exhibiting artworks (c.2007), embrace constituencies and collective creativity (2011-ongoing), and commit to a process of demodernising the institution (2013–ongoing), all of which are richly documented and discussed in the book. Three essays consider the ongoing coloniality of the Netherlands and its impact on the museum’s identity as well the museum’s developing relations with specific publics and communities in Eindhoven and beyond. There are sections on the role of the museum confederation L'internationale as well as inforgraphic interpretations of the collection. The Museum Is Multiple is edited by Charles Esche and Chương-Đài Võ, with contributions from curators Annie Fletcher, Christiane Berndes, Nick Aikens, Steven ten Thije and Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide. The essays are by art historians Julia Alting and Wulan Dirgantoro; the infographics by Studio Joost Grootens; and research by curators Marjolein Ossewaarde and Abril Cisneros Ramírez.