Tomorrow is a Different Day
Collection 1980 – Now
Exhibition — Ongoing
Tomorrow is a Different Day spotlights art and design from the collection, from 1980 to the present, by international artists and designers who are helping to shape the changes of today and tomorrow. They challenge the status quo and offer alternative perspectives.
The presentation of art and design from 1950 – 1980 is on view in Everyday, Someday and Other Stories. The collection until 1950 in Yesterday Today.
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Installation view Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980 – Now. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij -
Installation view Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980 – Now. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij -
Installation view Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980 – Now. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij -
Installation view Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980 – Now. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij -
Installation view Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980 – Now. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij
The decades since the 1980s have been marked by dramatic global transformations—globalisation, migration, decolonisation, digitisation, the expansion of the primary and secondary markets, and the acknowledgement of various diasporas in art and society. These global and social shifts have not gone unnoticed by artists and designers, as the work in Tomorrow is a Different Day reveals. Ever-more responsive to the world we live in, artists use their work as a force for change. By voicing resistance, by challenging conventions, and by sharing narratives of hope and longing, they tell meaningful stories that resonate in our lives today.
Some artists in the new collection presentation had, for a long time, been less visible in the museum. For Tomorrow is a Different Day, the curators sought out untold narratives, to be displayed alongside more famous names. The Stedelijk also made a point of purchasing several new works by artists including Martine Syms, El Anatsui, and Marcel Pinas to deepen the collection. On the basis of themes such as urban activism, ecology, digitisation and migration, this refreshed collection presentation presents a multiplicity of histories, showcasing works by familiar and lesser-known names such as Steve McQueen, Rineke Dijkstra, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marlene Dumas, Sheila Hicks, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Harvey Bouterse, Remy Jungerman and Danielle Dean.
In contrast to the previous installation, this new concept is built on theme rather than chronology, and confronts us with a changing world. On the one hand, it wants to seduce the visitor, but also to make them think. Aesthetic questions often contain ethical questions as well. Esiri Erheriene-Essi’s paintings depicting ordinary life also disrupt your readings of the world, offering a counter-narrative to the ever-dominant media images. El Anatsui’s monumental wall sculpture made from bottle caps, has enormous presence and grandeur. By repurposing waste materials, he tells stories about trade, slavery, consumerism and the environment.
El Anatsui, In the World But Don’t Know the World, 2009, aluminum and copper wire, 560 x 1,000 cm, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Kunstmuseum Bern. Acquired with support of the Rembrandt Association (thanks in part to its Titus Fonds, its Themafonds Naoorlogse en Hedendaagse kunst, its Van Rijn Fonds and its Coleminks Fonds), the Mondriaan Fund, the BankGiro Loterij and Stiftung GegenwART, with special thanks to the SIGG COLLECTION @ El Anatsui. Photo Peter Tijhuis.
The new collection presentation includes both visual art and design. Designers offer solutions to the world’s evolving challenges and developments, particularly the looming climate crisis that is changing our environment at a breakneck pace. Belén gives you a chance to see our living environment in a different way by investigating the power of natural resources. The Another Throw blankets are woven with yarns dyed with vegetable pigments that, through their specific properties, create unique colours and hues. In his project Medulla, Don Yaw Kwaning explores new uses for pitrus, or soft rush, a grass-like plant that is considered a weed in the Netherlands. By separating the soft pith (medulla) from the fibres, he develops light, organic materials that can be used in the production of furniture and packaging material. Daan Roosegaarde also turns a worthless product into something valuable with his project Smog Free Ring. The ring is made from polluted air collected by the Smog Free Tower; 1000 cubic meters of smog particles are compressed into a diamond ring.
The design collection also addresses the theme of displacement and memories with newly purchased works by Foundland, Czar Kristoff and Bodil Ouedrago, among others. These works are set up in a specially designed space that gives a different context and perspective to the works.
The new collection presentation features works by artists and designers who are courageous, bold and hopeful. With interventions that are at times disturbing, and with heart-warming stories and inspiring perspectives, they invite us to see the changing world in a new way. Tomorrow is a Different Day teaches us to take a closer look at our society and is a chance for the Stedelijk to critically examine its own social position. Tomorrow everything will be different from today, and yesterday is different seen from the perspective of today. The Stedelijk’s collection of art and design always keeps us alert to the issues posed by constant change.
Tomorrow is a Different Day. Collection 1980–now features work by:
Francis Alÿs, El Anatsui, Avoidstreet, Belén, Rachid Ben Ali, Wout Berger, Laloua/Didier Pascal, Gilles de Brock, Cosima von Bonin, Harvey Bouterse, Panmela Castro, Anne-Lise Coste, Danielle Dean, Jan Dietvorst, Marlene Dumas, Esiri Erheriene-Essi, Jana Euler, Collective Foundland, Benedikt Fischer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Xu Han, Marit van Heumen, Sheila Hicks, Richard Hutten, Saodat Ismailova, Steffani Jemison, Remy Jungerman, Iris Kensmil, Max Kisman, Jeff Koons, Czar Kristoff, Otto Künzli, Don Yaw Kwaning, Charl Landvreugd, Louise Lawler, Zuzana Licko, Klara Lidén, Harmen Liemburg, Angela Luna, Jonas Lund, Kees Maas, Basir Mahmood, Luna Maurer, Steve McQueen, Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Christien Meindertsma, Peter Mertens, Issey Miyake, Zanele Muholi, Manfred Nisslmüller, Bodil Ouedraogo, Noon Passama, Marcel Pinas, Sigmar Polke, Josephine Pryde, Michel Quarez, Waldi Raad, Karim Rashid, Willem de Rooij, Daan Roosegaarde, Wieki Somers, Swip Stolk, Martine Syms, Michael Tedja, Jennifer Tee, Tenant of Culture, Frank Tjepkema, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anna Uddenberg, Mirjam Unger, Rudy VanderLans, Marijke van Warmerdam, Werker Collective, Witho Hans & Gremmen Worms, Peter Zegveld.
LOOKING THROUGH THE EYES OF…
In the audio tour accompanying the new collection presentation, artists, designers or curators who share their personal stories of the works on view in each room. The artists and designers tell you why they created the piece, what it means to them and what they are looking for in their work. The curators talk about what makes a work stand out, and how each piece fits into this new presentation concept. Several artists also wrote texts that will be presented in the exhibition alongside the works.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
History is continually in flux, constantly fed by new voices and insights. Tomorrow is a Different Day is the first part of the Stedelijk’s new collection presentation, with more room for familiar, new and different perspectives. The presentation of art and design from 1950–1980 is on view in Everyday, Someday and Other Stories. The works from before 1950 in Yesterday Today.
The Stedelijk Museum is supported by:
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