Re-launch: 50 Years and Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn

This summer Vleeshal celebrates its 50-year anniversary and relaunches its program with two exhibitions that cast a network of relations both throughout the islands of Zeeland and across oceans beyond. 

From its earliest years, Vleeshal has been known for its outstanding program centered on bold experimentation, often supporting important steps by artists who have become among the most celebrated voices of their generation. From Marinus Boezem in 1979 to Jimmie Durham in 1995, to Sandra Mujinga in 2020, Vleeshal has always had the artistic imagination at its heart.

Marking its 50-year milestone Vleeshal also turns to embrace the extraordinary context of the Dutch province of Zeeland—with its renowned agricultural produce and biodynamic farming, vital sea ecologies, queer modernist art history, shipping and heavy industry, nuclear power, and its significant colonial history as well as present-day Afro-Caribbean and Molukkan communities among many others. 

The two exhibitions that relaunch the Vleeshal program each forge new connections. In the summer Vleeshal Collectie on Tour will experiment with presenting our collection in new locations in collaboration with ArtBase Terneuzen and M HKA Antwerp. Then, in the fall an exhibition by Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn will help to reflect on Zeeland’s own remembrance of aerial bombardment. Kicking off July 4 and 5 with a festive opening weekend, the 50-years celebration will also mark Vleeshal’s first participation in the official Keti Koti Zeeland festival. 

These programs are joined by Vleeshal’s site-specific project series Oemoemenoe (‘what do we do now?’ in Zeeuws dialect); as well as the new AIRZeeland artist-in-residence series together with Theaterproductiehuis Zeeland and Mostly Modern Festival, and the talent development program Team V both supported by Provincie Zeeland. 

50 Jaar: Vleeshal Collectie on Tour
Marking 50 years, Vleeshal joins forces with ArtBase Terneuzen and M HKA Antwerp for a special exhibition that takes the Vleeshal collection across Zeeland for the first time. 

Evolving from the first piece by Marlow Moss, Composition with Double Line and Blue Area (1934) acquired in the 1970s, and growing through the 2000s, the Vleeshal collection features exceptional works by Marinus Boezem, Rossella Biscotti, Sara Blokland, Jimmie Durham, Pipilotti Rist, Nedko Solakov, Danh Vo and Marijke van Warmerdam among many others. In this new collaboration network led by ArtBase and with curator Julia Mullié, Vleeshal Collectie on Tour will showcase pieces of the Vleeshal collection with host venues throughout Zeeland. Generous support for this project is provided by M HKA Antwerp. The celebration will also mark Vleeshal’s first participation in the official Keti Koti Zeeland festival, remembering and celebrating the end of slavery, taking place July 1.

Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn: The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon
This fall, Vleeshal reflects upon the marks and reverberations of war with a film and sculptural installation by sculptor, filmmaker and storyteller Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn. The exhibition is in two parts, the film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon, and a sculpture crafted from salvaged unexploded ordinances (UXO) gathered in the area of Quang Tri on the North Central Coast of Vietnam. Together, they provoke the question of whether war ever truly ends, and of how it transfers across geography and generations.

This presentation in Vleeshal’s 1600s gothic space will also draw forward local histories and echoes. In 1940, the hall was almost completely destroyed by aerial bombardment, while in the aftermath of war, the region of Zeeland was littered with brass grenade shells, among other traces of occupation. An accompanying presentation will focus on the vernacular art that transformed these grenades into functional items and engraved memorabilia that is often still held in family homes.