Color Wheel Tour during Dutch Design Week
In October, we had the chance to further highlight Forever Summer with a presentation during Dutch Design Week: the Forever Summer Color Wheel Tour. Every day between 11:00 – 17:00, visitors could explore four different stations in the museum.
Can you conserve a tomato in the museum’s art collection? Curator Toos Nijssen reflects on this question from the museum archives, a film found at the Soil / Humidity station next to our tomato seed bank with the most fascinating names.
Observations from the tomato communities‘ logbooks on this summer’s growing season were displayed at station Pollination / Climate alongside the insightful weather poetry of Aliki van der Kruijs’ Calendar Project. This work shows calendars on which the weather was noted daily by Wim van der Kruijs in Gemert, Brabant in the period 1984-2002. Has the weather changed?
An array of pigments present in the tomato harvest of 2024 was presented with the dried peels. This summer 2024 colour palette could be found at the Sunlight / Water station. The pulp of the tomato harvest was used for tomato leather. This taste experience was shared at the last station that could be found at the top of the museum cafe.
Daily, we organised a performative activation that brought together stories, materials and objects in a tomato experience. Besides these regular activities, we had the great pleasure of having in-depth conversations. For instance, we welcomed Karst Meijer and Erik van der Ham from Herbarium Frisicum to talk about the nightshade family and the importance of herbaria for biodiversity. We talked to Mime van der Weerden of the Tomato Community about her impressive tomato festival and knowledge of tomato varieties. And we reflected on the Oct 24 weather with Aliki van der Kruijs and Renee Rooijmans.
Thank you to the Van Abbemuseum for this wonderful experience. Follow the project and hopefully you can grow a variety of coloured tomatoes with us next summer!
Thanks to Boudewijn Bollmann for the pictures.