Sur Place

Exhibition design for a large selection of pieces of the art collection of Fortis. Because this bank is grown throughout the years by taking over smaller banks, there is no such thing as a consciously build collection- it is naturally grown by these takeovers. The collection consists of antique and contemporary art pieces, books, documents, paintings, furniture, sculpture and video productions. The exhibition was arranged around 11 themes, over 38 spaces in the old Fortis building at the Herengracht in Amsterdam. Because the bank moved to a new location, this was a good opportunity to change the formal office spaces into exhibition spaces to show a selection of the art collection. The building consist of historical monumental spaces as well as functional additions build over the years with no architectural qualities at all (at the artist impressions see images on the left). The themes, defined by the curator of the exhibition Liesbeth van Abbe, show the cohesion of the works. Goal was to let the exhibition be an experience that presents art in a different way then the usual museologycal way. Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe used these themes to design the spaces in a way the art would be experienced differently, together with all senses to experience the art; image, sound, smell, taste.