I visited two very different museums on Friday, spending most of my time at the Tropen Museum, which I also visited in March. This museum documents Nederland's colonial past but is known for doing so in a responsible and responsive way. (Community members were included in the interpretive process.) The museum has an incredible range of objects (art, musical instruments, shoes, groceries, coffins...) from countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. As I approached the imposing building, I saw banners announcing the current exhibition: ROOD! It's a thematic exhibition exploring emotional responses to the color red throughout the cultures represented in its collections. The exhibition was set up in a spiral. As I entered, I heard a throbbing heartbeat, but before long I was looking at a knitted red sports car! They even took on religion. Fascinating. I also enjoyed an excellent exhibition on Mexico where I sat in a "bar" watching El Santo and la lucha libre (Mexican wrestling). Another display of a spice vendor enabled the aromas to waft into the museum space. Very engaging.
Later I gave in to my fantasy and went to the Houseboat Museum, on an actual houseboat. The first thing I noticed was that the ladder down into the houseboat was easier to negotiate than the staircases to my apartment. Most visitors commented that it was larger than they expected, but I was stunned by the very small sleeping spaces that remained from the time when the vessel was a working barge. (A family of four slept there!) I welcomed the invitation to have a seat in the comfy living room, and I looked through a book catagorizing houseboats so I could pick out the kind I'd like. (That the fantasy part...)
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