Less Is More, So Many Dots & The Infinity Mirror Room | Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar

It was definitely time to visit another museum. Visiting museums is something I really like to do, because I get very inspired by seeing the different pieces of art. Museum Voorlinden has been on my “to visit” list for a while now, and on a free Friday afternoon I finally got to visit this Instagram worthy museum. I knew they opened a new exhibitions with art from Yayoi Kusama and I just had to see her art and experience the magical Infinity Mirror Room. Curious to see what Museum Voorlinden is like? I am sure you’ll want to visit it as well, after reading this blog post…

Museum Voorlinden is a museum for modern and contemporary art located on this beautiful estate called Voorlinden. The museum itself is surrounded by these beautiful gardens. There are different temporary exhibitions and Museum Voorlinden also displays pieces from their own collection.

Voorlinden collection

Voorlinden has unique artworks in their own collection, which you are able to see all year round. For example, the “Couple under an Umbrella” by Ron Mueck. In my photo above it might look like a normal photo of a couple under an umbrella at the beach, but in real life they are very large and look super realistic. Anything from little hairs, wrinkles and other details. It’s interesting to look at but also a little scary…

One artwork I have seen so much on Instagram is the “Swimming pool”. Leandro Erlich designed the “Swimming pool” especially for Museum Voorlinden. Seeing the swimming pool at first, it just look like a normal swimming pool. But you are able to walk in the swimming pool and make it look like you’re in it without actually getting wet. It’s so cool! Another highlight of their own collection is “Open Ended” by Richard Serra. The artwork weighs almost 216 tonnes, is 4 metres high, 18 metres long and 7 metres wide. You can fully experience “Open Ended” by walking through it, which was kind of scary because you don’t know where you end up.

Less is More

Minimalism has been a trend for a last couple of years. It seems a new way of life. This is also visible in the art world. Right now artists are, just like a couple of years ago, taking a chance and trying to show people through art how to live our life around the concept of less. So say hello to “less is more”. All of the paintings, sculptures and artworks from the different artists were very interesting to me. Everything is very photogenic and my favorite artworks have to be “Trans-For-Men 8” by Alicja Kwade, where you walk around an artwork with different ‘stones’ and mirrors, which transform to a different ‘stone’, “Plastic Tree C” by Pascale Marthine Tayou, 278 different plastic bags are used on branches to make it look like a tree, and “De travers et trop grande(rouge)” by Daniel Buren, stripes everywhere!

Armando

Before going to Museum Voorlinden, I had actually not heard about Armando. Armando was an artist, writer, poet, violinist, actor, journalist, film, television and theatre maker. So you could say he was always busy trying to express himself and he was one of the most important post-war artists in Europe. As you can tell from the photos below his art is very expressive and I really enjoyed looking at the different pieces. I noticed the shapes of the sculptures were also used in his paintings.

Yayoi Kusama

One of the most talked about artists at this moment is definitely Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist. When I hear Yayoi Kusama, I immediately think of dots, because she is also called the “queen of polka dots”. Some of her iconic works are displayed at Museum Voorlinden until 1 September 2019, so I really wanted to check it out. Before entering the room with different artworks from Yayoi Kusama, we were greeted by the “Pumpkin”. Yayoi Kusama has always had a fascination with pumpkins and all of her pumpkin artwork have dots all over. It’s such a big piece of art and the detailing is insane.

When entering the room with art from Yayoi Kusama, the first thing that caught my eye was “Infinity Nets”. On a yellow painting you’ll see many black lines, which form a net, that (almost) doesn’t come to an end. “Infinity Nets” is inspired by her youth, because in her youth Yayoi Kusama was dealing with hallucinations and used to go home and make paintings featuring dots and nets. “Infinity Nets” is like a spiderweb where you can get lost in, just like Yayoi Kusama did when she would suffer from hallucinations.

Last, but definitely not least we went into “Infinity Mirror Room: Gleaming Lights of the Souls”. When entering Museum Voorlinden we received a card with a time slot when we would be able to enter the Infinity Mirror Room. For 45 seconds. Yes, you have 45 seconds to go into this dark room where you can experience infinity. When I saw I only had 45 seconds to be in the Infinity Mirror Room, I was wondering why. It’s just because it’s such a popular artwork of Yayoi Kusama and she wants it to be an intimate experience. I went in by myself and it was truly magical. Everywhere I looked, I saw lights, which kept changing color. Definitely a must to experience once in your life.

Well, looking back at my visit to Museum Voorlinden I saw so many different artworks from different artists and it was super inspiring! There are even more exhibitions in Museum Voorlinden, which you are able to find here, you can take a walk on the Voorlinden estate and have a break at the restaurant. All in all, you are able spend a full day there! I will definitely be back when they have new exhibitions. Have you ever been to Museum Voorlinden? Which exhibition would you like to visit?

Love,

Neeltje