The current exhibition at the Zeeuws Museum is about work: in the past, now and in the future. 

The Zeeuws Museum imagines a world in which work is no longer the main element that structures our lives and our environment. Work is changing rapidly for us all: flexible working has become the norm and machines are increasingly supplementing or replacing manpower in more and more professions. It is clear that work will play a different role for young and old in the future. This exhibition explores the meaning of work through eight works of art, each of which employs a different strategy for dealing with the changing work landscape: calling for resistance, attempting to hack the system, preparing us for a life after work or keeping the memory of work alive through rituals.

Take time this summer to reflect on work and leisure time in Zeeland.
The exhibition includes works by James Beckett, Jeremy Deller, Janne van Gilst, Manon van Hoeckel, Christian Jankowski, Lisette Olsthoorn, Helge Prinsen and Ottonie von Roeder.

BEYOND THE MUSEUM’S WALLS

ZEELAND’S ECONOMY

The changing role of work is clearly visible in Zeeland: the traditional icons of the farmer and the fisherman are slowly making way for the image of sun, sea and sand. The many empty historical buildings dotted across Zeeland’s landscape bear witness to these changes. The Zeeuws Museum has published a special edition of the Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant (PZC) and has teamed up with the province’s broadcaster Omroep Zeeland to explore the significance of these changes in greater depth and to share the results with the broadest possible audience.

CYCLING ADVENTURE

Taking in the Zeeuws Museum, the external locations, the ferryboat and other notable places, the cycling route offers a unique day out in Zeeland. You can start the route in Middelburg, Flushing or Breskens between 25 May and 1 September. The route map is available in the Zeeuws Museum and here on the website (PDF). The map provides exact details of the locations and their opening times. You can download the route to your smartphone via this link .

ART COMMISSIONS

The museum has commissioned three artists to explore this theme. Photographer Janne van Gilst (1991) has made a two-channel video installation about the draft horses that were once essential to local agriculture. Although the horses are no longer used on the land, farmers on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland maintain the tradition of the ‘Strao’, in which the horses are ridden into the sea at the end of the winter to rid them of parasites. Filmmaker Lisette Olsthoorn (1982) is working on the film Fantasies On How To Strike about how precarious working conditions affect workers’ everyday lives. The film focuses on museum invigilators and explores their uncertain working conditions. One of the roles is played by Mike van den Berge from the museum’s hospitality and security team. In the intervention Phone Home, Manon van Hoeckel (1990) combines the stories of immigrant workers with those of young Zeelanders who have left the province.

Due to the changed route in the museum because of the corona protocol at the moment the movies can not be fully watched in the exhibition. On reserving a ticket visitors will receive a link to watch the movies online before or after their visit.

The exhibition has been designed by the design duo Toon Koehorst and Jannetje in ’t Veld, who also designed the museum’s permanent exhibition This is Zeeland.

_{The picture at the top is by Jaap Scheeren}