Heart of Darkness

The majority of the participating artists have a background of migration and now live and work in the West. According to curator Marianne Brouwer, they make art ‘in the Western vocabulary, but with themes that come from their background’ and can therefore be described as ‘artists in exile’.

Curator Marianne Brouwer takes the title of the exhibition from the 1902 novel of the same name by Joseph Conrad, who describes in this book a Westerner’s first confrontation with the culture of Central Africa. The book is regarded as the first anti-colonial novel in literature. Similar to the book’s protagonist, the exhibition visitor is confronted with non-Western culture in the form of works of art that question the cultural-historical position of the Western museum.

The Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang opens the exhibition on 18 December 1994 with the work Project for extraterrestrials no. 23: Myth-Shooting the suns, which is inspired by a Chinese myth about the creation of the earth and by the scientific theory of the big bang. On a sandy plain in De Hoge Veluwe Park, he places nine trees upside down in the sand of the Veluwe and attaches a large quantity of fireworks to the roots of each tree. The trees are connected by a 3.5-kilometre fuse, which is lit by Cai during the opening ceremony. For a few seconds the visitors witness a spectacle similar to the creation of the universe.

After the exhibition, the museum acquires work from almost all participating artists. In 1999, Resonance by the Chinese artist Chen Zhen, which was shown in the auditorium, is moved to the sculpture garden where it is given a permanent place on the Franse Berg. Overturned Tomb by Huang Yong Ping is intentionally placed opposite the old entrance to the museum. There, the collection of Asian art is exhibited, including a collection of Tang figurines that were traditionally buried with the deceased in their tomb.