WASSENAAR.- Lockdowns, hardening and division? Art is the antidote! Museum Voorlinden proves this with its new exhibition Art is the Antidote. With a large dose of sparkling, socially engaged and funny artworks from its own collection, the museum acts as a charging station, a place where you can build up your resistance. The exhibition is on display now.

The past two years of lockdowns and restrictions have weighed heavily on our society. A hardening is taking place, divisions are increasing and the flood of disinformation is growing. Personal beliefs seem to be the only truth, while hard science is seen as questionable and thorough journalism as unreliable. Amidst all the corona measures and escalating debates, the average person becomes exhausted, underexcited and under-stimulated. Museum Voorlinden offers the ultimate antidote with its collection exhibition Art is the Antidote.

Director Suzanne Swarts: ‘Art is a medicine: it recharges you, gives you energy and shows you that things can be different. In these complicated times, this exhibition feels like a real breath of fresh air.’

Slogan-art as a starting point

With the collection exhibition Art is the Antidote, Museum Voorlinden offers visitors a good dose of humorous, socially critical and colourful artworks to build up their resistance. The exhibition contains works exclusively from Voorlinden’s own collection and is named after the new work Art is the Antidote by Bob and Roberta Smith, the pseudonym of Bob Brill. This anti-establishment artist normally makes signs, banners and posters with colourful slogans proclaiming the importance of art and music. Especially for Voorlinden, he made a life-size version of Art is the Antidote. The artwork is the opening of the exhibition.

A much-needed art booster

With works like Ai Weiwei’s porcelain oil spills (Oil Spills), Tom Sachs’ stack of food crates (Figurative Tower) and Sean Scully’s blocky landscapes (Arles-Abend-Vincent 2), Voorlinden offers a fine mix of socially engaged and infectious artworks that set one’s senses on edge and reveal different points of view. Some artworks are great for daydreaming, like with Soleil Toujours by Etel Adnan, while other works offer hope, as Blow Up (Verso) by Lyle Ashton Harris does. The collection exhibition also includes works by Zhanna Kadyrova, Folkert de Jong, David Batchelor, Alicja Kwade, Dimitri Tsykalov and Hans-Peter Feldmann; perfect for getting the much-needed art booster at Voorlinden.

Art is the Antidote includes work by Bob and Roberta Smith, Etel Adnan, Bernard Frize, Zhanna Kadyrova, Johannes Langkamp, Jeff McMillan, Yayoi Kusama, Bob Bonies, Jean Tinguely, Charles Avery, Merlyn Paridaen, Alicja Kwade, Imi Knoebel, Lyle Ashton Harris, Piero Manzoni, Subodh Gupta, Guido Geelen, Sean Scully, Tom Sachs, Graham Fagen, Zoro Feigl, David Batchelor, Ai Weiwei, Thomas Scheibitz, Folkert de Jong, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Marcel Broodthaers, Inti Hernandez, Harald Vlugt, Dimitri Tsykalov, Joncquil, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Axel Hütte and Loris Cecchini.