With declining infection numbers, European museums are reawakening after a months-long slumber brought on by the global COVID-19 crisis. In mid-May, The New York Times outlined the early efforts of German cultural institutions to reopen, and the cautions put in place to ensure visitor safety. What does the ‘new’ museum experience look like? To visit one of the numerous destinations in Amsterdam these days, for example, you need to make an appointment ahead of time. The use of masks, disinfecting stations, and social distancing are part of the entry agreement pretty much everywhere. Some institutions are taking more careful measures, like the implementation of guided pathways, temperature screenings and request of travel and health declarations. Yet all certainly are a small price to pay for public safety – considering the heavy foot traffic the world’s most popular museums can attract – and the opportunity to be back in exhibition spaces. ‘I think the joy that people will get from being back in the museum will be bigger than the inconvenience,’ Berlinische Galerie director Thomas Köhler astutely told the Times.
From Helsinki to Singapore, here are institutions with design-focused exhibitions that have reopened their doors to the public. At long last.
Header: Verner Panton, Fantasy Landscape, Visiona 2, 1970, partial reconstruction, Vitra Design Museum, 2000. Photo: Ludger Paffrath, courtesy of Vitra Design Museum and Verner Panton Design AG, Basel | Above photo: Ludger Paffrath, courtesy of Vitra Design Museum
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM in Weil am Rhein, Germany
Home Stories – 100 Year, 20 Visionary Interiors
8 February 2020 – 28 February 2021
Reopened on 11 May 2020
The Woman and the Blacksmith by Le Corbusier, 1967. Manufacture de Beauvais 217 x 362 cm, wool. Collection Mobilier national. Photo: Isabelle Bideau, courtesy of Fondation Le Corbusier, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2019
KUNSTHAL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Extra Large – Tapestries from Picasso and Le Corbusier to Louise Bourgeois
28 March 2020 – 3 January 2021
Reopened on 1 June 2020
Photo: Courtesy of Red Dot Design Museum
RED DOT DESIGN MUSEUM in Singapore, Singapore
Human-Nature
Until September 2020
Reopened on 1 June 2020
Photo: Courtesy of Stedelijk Museum
STEDELIJK MUSEUM in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Nam June Paik – The Future is Now
14 March 2020 – 23 August 2020
Reopened on 1 June 2020
Photo: Culturespaces / E. Spiller
ATELIER DES LUMIERES in Paris, France
Yves Klein: Infinity Blue
28 February 2020 – 3 January 2021
Reopened on 26 May 2020
Photo: Courtesy of Design Museum Ghent
DESIGN MUSEUM in Ghent, Belgium
Kleureyck – Van Eyck’s Colours in Design
13 March – 21 February 2021
Reopened on 17 May 2020
Not pictured:
DESIGN MUSEUM in Helsinki, Finland
Travel as a Tool
1 June 2020 – 7 March 2021
Reopened on 1 June 2020