Museum de Schat van Simpelveld challenges you to balance on the edge of dream and reality during this summer’s exhibition Siebold’s Dreams.
In the nineteenth century, the German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold left for the mysterious and unknown Japan at the behest of the Netherlands. There, he enthusiastically collected everything that seemed of interest to him. His collections are now world-famous.
This summer, Museum de Schat van Simpelveld challenges you to step into the dream world of this nineteenth-century doctor. That is exactly what Russian artists Marta Volkova and Slava Shevelenko have done. They moved from St Petersburg to the Netherlands in 1991 and, like Siebold, built a new life in another country. They imagined all the dreams Siebold would have had and made these dreams come alive on large tapestries. Writer Marente de Moor then wrote a dream interpretation for each tapestry. As a visitor, this literary in-depth layer makes you think about themes such as self-sacrifice, the inclusive society and our dealings with ‘the other’.
The exhibition Siebold’s Dreams will be on display at Museum de Schat van Simpelveld from 1 June to 1 October 2023. Besides the exhibition at Museum de Schat van Simpelveld, there are also presentations from the same series at Museum de Lakenhal and Japanmuseum SieboldHuis from 1 June to 24 September 2023.
