Museum Van Loon does not sweep the colonial past
under the carpet of nobility
Debra Trend
17 days ago
Museum Van
Loon does not sweep the colonial past under the carpet of
The
reception in the Blue Salon of Museum Van Loon will be different in the coming
months. Usually, visitors here immediately stumbled upon the large portraits of
Thora by Egidius and her husband Willem Hendrik, who look down at them in
elegant clothes and with an affable look. Now visitors are welcomed by
Heindrina Heirath and Dirk Andreas Ralf.
This
Surinamese couple lived on the Beekvliet plantation, owned by the Van Loon
family. The two married in 1894, around the same time as Thora and Willem
Hendrik. Their labor partly paid for the city palace that Willem Hendrik bought
for his bride. “And now they are finally back in the place they contributed
to,” says Wonny Stuger, who has now redesigned the Blue Salon based on her own
family tree. Descendants of Heindrina and Dirk are scattered throughout the
room in family photos. There is also a picture of the family home, a white
wooden building that is smaller than the Blue Salon itself, but at one point
housed 25 people.
Historical catch-up
Stuger is
one of the participants in the conversations that Museum Van Loon had with
Imagine IC and SpeakUpWorld for two years. Subject: the colonial history of the
house and making it visible. That resulted in the exhibition Who says that?
The Van Loon
family’s plantation history has already been discussed in the exhibition On the
Surinamese canals (2019-2020). That was a much-needed historical catch-up,
which preceded the major slavery exhibition of the Rijksmuseum (2021) and the
recently concluded exhibition about plantation Alkmaar in Museum Alkmaar. But
Who says that? continues. Eight guest curators – referred to as narrators –
have been given an active role. The ‘different perspective’ or ‘many voices’
that museums are so looking for these days, is interpreted so unfiltered by
people who are not museum professionals.
Storm in the head
This
sometimes happens in a very personal way, such as in the bedroom – also called
‘the Sheep’s Room’ because of the wallpaper motif. The first time that Sãdiqãh
Salentijn entered here, the poet of mixed descent was overcome by conflicting
thoughts and emotions. She recognized her Groningen grandmother’s cupboard, but
realized that her Ghanaian grandmother would never have been welcome here. The
storm in Salentine’s head has been translated into a cacophonous sound
installation, but isolated thoughts can be heard through headphones. They
sharpen the eye, let you look differently at the luxurious furniture and think
differently about who lived here.
The red
bedroom two doors down prompted Wouter Neuhaus to tell his grandfather’s story
with spoken text, photos and maps. This room is usually devoted to King William
I’s efforts to mold the Netherlands into a nation state. The Van Loons
contributed to this not insignificant part of our national history by financing
De Nederlandsche Bank. It is less well known that thousands of Ghanaians were
shipped to Indonesia under the policy of William I, including the ancestors of
Grandpa Neuhaus. He became a KNIL soldier, worked on the death railway in Burma
and ended up in the Netherlands after the Second World War.
Spicy dinner conversation
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