The Stedelijk museum was by far my favorite museum for the arts that I visited in the Netherlands, and perhaps is now my favorite museum generally. The museum itself has not only a large collection, but an impressively diverse collection of important and valuable pieces. From Bauhaus furniture to artworks by Warhol, Nam June Paik, Kusama, Piet Modrian, Matisse, and contemporary emerging artists and designers, the museum is really a space that explores creativity and its many forms and perspectives. The first time I went to the Stedelijk, I spent over three hours in one wing of one floor of the museum. Needless to say, I went to the museum multiple times throughout my trip.
I found the curatorial decisions to be innovative and impactful and ultimately beneficial to exposing visitors to new perspectives in a context that allows the new perspective the best opportunity to resonate with the visitor. This was seen repeatedly throughout the museum with the juxtaposition of more well known artists and contemporary artists more new to the art world, or artists who are not as established. Placing works such as these within the same space and presenting them of the same importance is important to reinforce the value of these new perspectives for the viewer.
As an industrial designer, I enjoyed the extensive amount of objects in the museum that were also crafted for practical purposes, again extending a common visitor's perspective on what should be considered art or museum-worthy. A piece of the collection I especially appreciate is the Superonda, which was designed in 1967 by Archizoom, which was a Radical design group. The Superonda was the first sofa designed without a conventional frame. It’s made from a single block of polyurethane that is sliced with a wavy line. The modular components can be interlocked or stacked to be used as a sofa, bed, and chaise lounge. The design challenges the traditional conventions at the time as it allows users to have agency in their furniture.
In previous design history courses, I had researched Radical design and the Superonda, which made me especially excited to not only be able to see it in person but to also be able to sit on the couch! I found the museum allowing visitors to sit on the couch to be an important statement related to the value of objects, as it made me question if visitors are truly able to experience furniture in museums that they cannot use. As a designer, I know that the user experience of a product is by far more important and informative than simply looking at an object and imagining what it would be like to use it, which made me further reflect on how museums could be different if visitors were allowed to use all the objects as originally intended when they were created.
Image taken from the lafva lab, exploring ways to repurpose garbage and proving it is not useless.