Article by Chris Reinewald
Twenty years ago, the Zuiderzeemuseum (ZZM) in Enkhuizen expanded its approach under its new, unconventional director, Erik Schilp. Through a fictional settlement featuring historically reconstructed cottages, the museum focused on specific Zuiderzee crafts and ways of life. To this end, the ZZM approached contemporary visual and applied artists, (fashion) designers, and photographers. The idea was to have them respond to the collected crafts through their work. Regional jewelry, furniture, traditional costumes, genre paintings. In this way, even nondescript items from the museum’s storage were elevated to the status of autonomous works of art.
The exhibition opens fittingly with an installation by Zoro Feigl. He transformed ordinary compasses and a magnet into an installation symbolizing the ZZM’s course. Behind it, Maarten Baas’s projection can be glimpsed: on a beach, people are pushing the hands of a clock—his signature piece, familiar from previous installations.
Look and Compare
The installation of design art in the humble cottages of the open-air museum followed the popular, postmodern model of Jan Hoet’s site-specific exhibition Chambres d’Amis in Ghent (1986).
In the current retrospective exhibition, the objects are arranged in a museum-style display alongside their original prototypes. Take a look and compare. The outfits by Viktor & Rolf (including clogs), Francisco van Benthum, and Bas Kosters demonstrate an interplay between folklore and deconstructive restyling.
The same is true of Aldo Bakker’s intelligent hi-craft design. He reinterpreted the time-honored copper tradition with an extremely thin, hammered pitcher (technical assistance: silversmith Jan Mathesius) as a stark contrast to the chunky traditional teapots. Richard Hutten stayed closer to the church model with a small wooden button-back chair. More eccentric is a black, Batman-esque chair in which designer Sjoerd Vroonland interwove rattan with protruding plastic zip ties.
Exhibition Presentations
The reinterpretation of craftsmanship began in the 1990s as a course assignment in design programs (such as the Sandberg Institute) and was further explored conceptually by Droog Design. Designers were believed to be able to revitalize craftsmanship—which had been dictated by technology and materials—through their innovations. In practice, however, designers often reduced the material to mere styling.
The ZZM followed Droog with its own product presentations at design fairs in Rotterdam and Milan—a break from existing structures between creator, product, and consumer.
In the museum booths, the isolated objects appeared surprising yet often had a sacred quality. Meanwhile, the differences between them are being further minimized. With her latest commissioned artwork,
Nynke Koster creates her own subtle context. It is an above-ground, 65% scaled-down representation of the inaccessible water cellar. Sit inside it. Time folds around you like a blanket.
Exhibition ‘With New Eyes‘
Zuiderzeemuseum, Het Schathuys
9 May – 30 August, 2026
zuiderzeemuseum.nl
Photography: Chris Reinewald
