Exhibition programme 2020

Mondo Mendini – The World of Alessandro Mendini
Through 5 May 2020
A quarter century after the opening of the Groninger Museum building he designed, Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019) was given free rein to put together his dream exhibition. Mondo Mendini encompasses a broad selection of works from his own rich, humorous, provocative oeuvre: furniture, vases, paintings, architectural models, jewellery, and sculptures. Objects on view include a giant version of his baroque armchair Poltrona di Proust and the famous Anna G. corkscrew. Mendini also honoured his sources of inspiration by choosing works by famous masters like Paul Signac, Kazimir Malevich and Michele De Lucchi as well as somewhat lesser-known twentieth-century Italian designers. Mondo Mendini is a visually overwhelming mix of art, design and architecture.

Pronkjewails – Design from Past and Present
Through 9 May 2021
In honour of the museum building’s 25th anniversary, guest curator John Veldkamp has decorated the Starck Pavilion with ceramic and glass objects from the past and present. The exhibition illustrates the Groninger Museum’s collecting history while treating visitors to original combinations of splendid objects arranged in masterly still lifes. Veldkamp owned the renowned design store John John’s, which operated for more than 30 years on Oude Kijk in ’t Jatstraat in Groningen. In the 1980s, he encouraged the Groninger Museum’s then director Frans Haks to start collecting contemporary design.

Willem Kolvoort – Posters for Vera
10 January through 7 June 2020
This exhibition showcases the playful, imaginative, humorous screen prints of Willem Kolvoort (b. 1965), the renowned poster maker for the Groningen live music venue Vera. In more than three decades of working with Vera, Kolvoort has designed and printed more than 500 concert posters. His idiosyncratic designs exude attitude, but his use of animal figures lends them an endearing quality too. The exhibition opens shortly before the next edition of the music festival Eurosonic Noorderslag. A book will be published to coincide with the show: 30 jaar Vera posters (‘30 Years of Vera Posters’) features all Kolvoort’s posters for Vera, along with essays by the music journalist Peter van der Heide and the writer Bill Mensema.

En tóch staat de Martini – 75 Years of Liberation in Groningen
14 March through 30 August 2020
In April 1945, after five years of war, in which many of Groningen’s Jewish residents were deported and murdered, resistance fighters were imprisoned, tortured and executed, bombs devastated Groningen, and acute shortages took hold, the German forces tenaciously defended the occupied city. Despite the superior strength of the Canadian infantry, it took three days of heavy fighting to break the opposition. Artillery bombardments and raging fires partly destroyed the Grote Markt and ruined streets and houses. But Groningen was free. The exhibition looks at the war but keeps the focus on liberation.

What will the neighbours say? – Photography from the Collection
8 February through 30 August 2020
The Groninger Museum harbours an extensive, unique collection of contemporary photography. The exhibition What will the neighbours say? showcases a wide selection of work by leading photographers from the Netherlands and elsewhere from the last 50 years. The work on view ranges from Diane Arbus’s and Larry Clark’s 1970s documentary photography, through Anton Corbijn’s and Catherine Opie’s portraits and Inez van Lamsweerde’s fashion work of the 1980s and 1990s, to Ruud van Empel’s and David LaChapelle’s staged scenes from the past decade. The photographs address themes such as diversity, artificiality and identity and pose an overarching question: why do we increasingly look at ourselves through the imaginary lens of another?

Alida Pott & De Ploeg
20 June through 20 September 2020
Alida Pott (1888-1931) was De Ploeg’s ‘first lady member’. Part of the Groningen artists’ collective from the beginning, she held several administrative positions from 1918. She met fellow member George Martens in the group and married him in 1922. After giving birth to two children, she became less active in De Ploeg. Her premature death put an end to her delicate, promising artistry. She left behind a relatively small oeuvre of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and collages. The 30 works that comprise Alida Pott & De Ploeg display the expressiveness and individuality that characterise her style.

Stranger Things – Fashion and Design
29 May 2020 through 21 March 2021
Odd figures flock around a bright yellow, life-size toy vehicle. Mysterious forms in disturbing headgear mingle with an army of white and black soldiers. Mannequins in voluminous dark dresses appear trapped in a jungle of felt. Stranger Things presents contemporary design and fashion from the Groninger Museum’s collection, with a twist. The pieces come together in unexpected, sometimes bizarre ways, giving rise to surreal scenes that inspire visitors to make up and pass on their own stories. The exhibition features work by designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Studio Job, Viktor&Rolf, Joris Laarman, and Marc Newson and includes new acquisitions too.

The Rolling Stones – Unzipped
3 October 2020 through 17 January 2021
The Rolling Stones – Unzipped is the first international exhibition by and about the world-famous rock band. Following stints in London, the United States, Australia and Asia, the show tours Europe in revamped form in 2020, starting in Groningen. More than 400 original objects from the band’s personal archive provide an impressive look behind the scenes. Along with instruments, audiovisual material, diaries, posters and album covers, there are stage designs, iconic costumes and even a reconstruction of the band’s first apartment and recording studio. The grand finale is a unique three-dimensional experience of a Stones concert.