Exhibitions

On view until 27 August 2023

When the world becomes chaotic and intangible, like during a pandemic, many of us attempt to get a handle on reality by reducing it to a series of elementary lines and numbers. The exhibition 31553580 (obsessie/obsession): numbers and schedules explores a craving for structure and logic in our chaotic world. Artworks by Doerte Weber, Eiko Ishizawa, George Widener and Lionel Plak offer solace for the soul, something that connects us all.

The new exhibition at Museum van de Geest | Outsider Art is the result of the first ever collaboration between artist Jan Hoek and curator Hanne Hagenaars. Visitors are actively involved and in the run-up to the exhibition, they are invited to submit their most remarkable lists and schedules. The submissions will be presented at the museum during the exhibition. 31553580 is designed in collaboration with exhibition designer Tariq Heijboer.

One huge schedule 

The exhibition is a structured entity allowing visitors to escape from the chaotic world outside. Step into an enormous schedule, where the works are exhibited in a large, orderly grid pattern. The gallery texts - handwritten by the curators - connect the artworks logically.

Guest curators Hanne Hagenaars and Jan Hoek

A joint fascination for numbers and schedules previously inspired Hanne Hagenaars and Jan Hoek, mother and son, to produce a themed edition for art magazine Mister Motley. Many artists (especially outsider artists) use the strategies of bringing order, devising systems and categorisation in their work. Even without the additional stress of a pandemic, for many people, the world is so overwhelming that it needs to be stripped back to order and abstraction. This has resulted in numerous oeuvres with a flood of unstoppable and ever-growing schedules. Regular artists also produce the most incredible schedules. To some extent, all of us are inclined to capture chaos in schedules. From artists to managers with a fear of failure, to family men undergoing a midlife crisis. With the exhibition 31553580 (obsessie/obsession): numbers and schedules, the guest curators merge the partitioned worlds of ‘insider’, ‘outsider’ and everyone else.

Participating artists

31553580 (obsessie/obsession): numbers and schedules features work by artists including: Alex Naber, Angel Lartigue, Annesas Appel, Ardian Ramadanovic, De Gasten, Daphne Agten, Doerte Weber, Eiko Ishizawa, Elisa Pinto, Emma Wiersma, Esther Pearl Watson, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, George Korsmit & Saskia Janssen, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, George Widener, Georgina Starr, Gijs Assmann, Jan Hoek, Job Koelewijn, Kenny Callens, Kiki Smith, Lien Anckaert, Laura Body, Lionel Plak, Lizzie van Itallie, Lubos Plny, Marit Westerhuis, Melvin Way, Michiel de Jaeger, Pieke Werner, Renske de Greef, Rainbow Soulclub (Mimosa Govert Visser en AMP (Parry Person), Ruben Armando (La pureza del Arte), Ruth van Beek, Shane Drinkwater, Simon Evans, Tobias Tebbe, Toon Teeken & Océane Teeken and Zdenek Kosek.

For the Love of Art: collection highlights

For the Love of Art is the permanent exhibition with outsider art in Museum of the Mind. This diverse art collection tells one universal story: the passionate way of the artists for the process of creating art and thereby exposing a part of their inner world. Compare it with your mind in a state of infatuation; a mind where you can act with full commitment, without external influences.

Feel the love of art trough more than 90 works; from monstrous sculptures with dreamy looks made by the Japanese artist Shinichi Sawada to friendly black and white figures drawn by the Iranian Davood Koochaki. The thoughts of the British artist Richard C. Smith come to life with film fragments from the documentary by Gabriel Jagger (son of Mick Jagger) and Finbar Brown. Discover the paintings and collages of Ria Mul and enjoy the digital works of Abraham Diopp. Get amazed by the explosion of color in M. Anesi's creations, the details in the flower and plant textile works of South African Aradne, and so much more.

Museum of the Mind 

The Museum of the Mind is fascinated by the work of art inside your head. Because nothing is as diverse, unique, powerful and yet so fragile as the human mind. Through its art and cultural programmes, the museum helps to bring mental health and neurodiversity into the open.  

Museum van de Geest | Outsider Art in Amsterdam is the only museum in the Netherlands with a large (international) Outsider Art collection. This is art produced by those who are art world – and often social – outsiders. Through their work, they show their inner world without being concerned by the opinions of the outside world.

The museum also has a historical location in Haarlem, Museum of the Mind | Dolhuys, which explores the power and fragility of the human mind.  Our museums provide a platform for those in society who were previously unrepresented in the cultural landscape. Museum of the Mind recently won the European Museum of the Year Award 2022. The European Museum Forum presents this annual award to a museum that contributes to a better understanding of the world, using innovative approaches and pushing back museum standards.