On Saturday 14 June, the Groninger Museum will become a surprise-filled fantasy dwelling for the new exhibition Welcome to the Dreamhouse! A Postmodern Interior by Marloes and Wikke. Visitors will wander through a domestic labyrinth to discover postmodern gems from the museum’s design collection alongside props from the archive of scenographers Marloes and Wikke. As the exhibition’s designers, the duo have deployed their unconventional style to create a playful, theatrical show.
Welcome to the Dreamhouse! showcases an extensive selection of outstanding postmodern pieces in a setting that blurs the boundaries between art, design, and stage set. In this domestic labyrinth complete with a hall, a living room, a dining room, bedrooms and even a garden, a near-cinematic world comes to life, rich in detail, contrast, colour and humour. With their scattered toys and dirty ashtrays, the rooms speak of everyday life and the imperfection that typifies real interiors.
Design and the Groninger Museum
The Groninger Museum harbours strong links to postmodernism. Not only is the building an international postmodern architectural icon, it also houses one of the Netherlands’ pre-eminent postmodern design collections. The largest of its kind in any Dutch museum, the collection began in the 1980s under the former director Frans Haks. With a clear-cut collection policy, the museum has profiled itself as a pioneering home for postmodern design.
Welcome to the Dreamhouse! features work by influential designers like Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass and other members of the Memphis group, including Michele De Lucchi, Masanori Umeda, George Sowden and Nathalie Du Pasquier. One bedroom is furnished entirely with work by the American artist Rhonda Zwillinger. Also evident are the talents of Philippe Starck, who designed one of the museum’s pavilions, as well as Studio Job, Maarten Baas and Jaime Hayon, each of whom reinterprets postmodernism in their own way.
Stage design in the museum
Marloes van der Hoek and Wikke van Houwelingen work as the scenography duo Marloes and Wikke. Since meeting at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, they have become renowned stage designers for theatrical and operatic productions. Their playful, layered, evocative sets invite audiences into a fantasy world.
It isn’t often that a museum show is given form by stage designers. Welcome to the Dreamhouse! manifests a refreshing theatrical approach to exhibition design. Marloes and Wikke have created a total experience in which light, sound and objects come together in a sensory voyage of discovery. The show is a colourful, stimulating environment that underlines the beauty of postmodern design even as it sounds a critical note about consumer culture and our obsession with aesthetics.
Welcome to the Dreamhouse! A Postmodern Interior by Marloes and Wikke is open from 14 June until 16 November 2025 at the Groninger Museum.