2023-07-20 11:04:09
Main image • Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool” can be viewed from above and below. • Tom Busch
Long live deception and wonder: The Hague is celebrating the 125th birthday of Maurits Cornelis Escher.
You go and go and find no end. We move inside a steel colossus. There are 216 tons here, built as walls four meters high. Massive and yet slightly exhilarated. Another turn and we continue in the steel without knowing the exit. The walk-in colossus is a work of art, industrial art, made with a lot of brains. What is inside, what is outside? The US sculptor Richard Serra parked the heavyweight called “Open Ended” near The Hague. The light-flooded halls in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Voorlinden were equal to the monumental installation. While the rust-brown structure makes a manageable impression from the outside, it widens on the inside, seems to stretch and rise like yeast dough, which is physically impossible. It continues along the steel wall curves. The end is open.
Playing with perspectives
Playing with perspectives is very characteristic of Voorlinden. Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool” can be viewed from above and below, the realistic elevators by Maurizio Cattelan are no bigger than a forearm and the sunbathing seniors, modeled hyper-realistically down to the mole, are giants designed by Ron Mueck to be twice the size of a person. Maarten Baas, on the other hand, sets the time to “relative” – and happily wipes away the hands on the clock at London’s Paddington Station. The art shows disorientation and change of perspective up to reality bending with clever humor. Then it goes “bing”, the small elevator doors slide open and you expect a mouse to slip out. You might watch forever.
But there are still the many tigers by Ai Weiwei from the current special exhibition “This Far And Further”, 500,000 fish hooks form a sea and the installation “Through the Wall” leads into a gigantic cabinet full of mirrors, to examine one’s own reality and its illusion.
That’s where a household name comes in, a master of perspective paradoxes, Maurits Cornelis Escher. In his drawings, stairs rise to infinity and water flows uphill. Hands draw each other and there is no end to metamorphoses: flies become birds and fish, circling incessantly. A memorial to the Dutchman was set up in 2002 with the largest collection in the Escher in het Paleis. The Hague is now starting the big Escher year this summer, on the 125th birthday of the man who will be honored like a pop star even following his death – for his impossible works of possible deception.
Queen Mother Emma’s Winter Palace hosts the exhibition The Man Who Discovered Escher, dedicated to Escher’s teacher, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. Just around the corner, the Museum Bredius draws attention to optical illusions long before Escher in another exhibition, with fine treasures, paintings from the 17th century, an anamorphosis and various trompe-l’oeils. “Escher is in a long tradition of artists fascinated by perspective and optical illusions,” says curator Willem Jan Hoogsteder, an art expert on Dutch and Flemish masters, opening the highlight, a 17th-century perspective box, the only one of the Netherlands out of six around the world.
In the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague’s large art museum in the Stadhouderslaan, a selection of famous prints with spatial installations by the Belgian artist duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh will be staged for the new exhibition “Escher – Other World”. Here, in the other world, Remco Dörr is already waiting. As a native of The Hague and a city guide, he not only has a soft spot for art, but also for his Fiets. This is on a leash in front of the art museum. Next to them there are twee Fietsen waiting, bright blue and yellow. So saddled up! Shoulders straight and sitting elegantly upright in his jacket, Remco pedals resolutely past the Europol complex on the Eisenhowerlaan. He stops at Van Stolkweg. A large M. C. Escher mosaic depicting winged horses is emblazoned on the facade of the Liberal-Christian Lyceum. “Not many people know the work, not even the Hagenaar,” says Remco, pleased to be able to show an insider tip. “When the old building was demolished, the mosaic was secured and reinstalled following reconstruction.”
Villas built on sand
All around are impressive villas. Here in the west, the houses used to be set on the North Sea dunes. A rich patch – built entirely on sand! “Yes, yes, if you come from the sand, you are a Hagenaar; if you come from the low, you’re a Hagenees,” laughs Remco. The low, that means the former swamp areas and runs down there, from the center of the city to the east. “Well, actually we are not a city, but a big village.” Once a hunting lodge of the Counts of Holland, The Hague never became a city under municipal law, the appointment was probably missed in the Middle Ages. Today the large village is the seat of parliament and government, the seat of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and 120 embassies. “And best of all: we are right by the sea!” It takes less than five minutes to get to the beach from here. The district of Scheveningen opens up to the North Sea with a long promenade. At one end the Ferris wheel towers up at the De Pier pier, at the other end the tower of the newly opened Den Haag Marina Beach Hotel at the harbor marks the beautifully landscaped promenade with well-developed cycle paths. In the middle in front of the lighthouse, De Waterreus was set on sand – as one of the hippest restaurants in the region. The kitchen shows its art with fresh seafood and creative cuisine from Indonesia, from gambas aioli to Balinese chicken. And the Grüner Veltliner from Langenlois makes for surprised faces among Austrian guests. Whether it’s high heels or flip-flops, a shirt or neoprene shorts, anything goes: the ambience is upscale and casual at the same time, just like the cool surfers and kite surfers who romp over the waves in front of the lounge chairs. A sun-yellow kite sail is just rising – and into the blue, cloudless sky.
Ring prank at Königs
“Do you want to see what it looked like here 150 years ago?” Remco gets back on his Fiets. “Then follow me, along the Scheveningseweg to the Zeestraat!” An impressive all-round panorama is installed in the Mesdag Museum: Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted the beach at Scheveningen from 1881, with the dunes full of fishing boats. The unusual bike tour through The Hague continues. In the Molenstraat, Remco opens the doors of Park Centraal to a stairwell that looks like it was taken from an Escher drawing and translated into reality.
Once around the corner, at the end of Molenstraat 27 there is a high fence. Behind it rises the Royal Palace Noordeinde, official residence of the Dutch monarchy. “I’ll ring the king’s bell for a moment,” Remco already presses the “Bark here” button, “maybe he’s in his office right now.” A Dutch ring and Remco wants to test how fast we can cycle away? Too late, someone opens. We rang the Koninklijke Marechaussee, the Dutch armed forces responsible for the royal family. Founded in 1814 by King Wilhelm I, the military police also provide security during official state visits. The tourists on the bright blue and yellow Fietsen don’t look like state visits, but are allowed to pass and look at the royal park. Remco smirks: “And now to the town hall!” – “But only if Escher is mayor there,” we parry the Hagenaar humor.
Graphics in XL, following the style of Escher, are emblazoned on the facade of the municipal office. Next door, at the neighbor’s, we park our bikes: The Amare was opened as the largest cultural building in the Netherlands, is CO2-free, uses rainwater, has solar panels and 50 integrated bird nest boxes, “and not to forget 28 built-in bat hiding places,” laughs Remco once more cordially and waves goodbye from the Fiets.
Escher in The Hague
Escher in the Palais: „The Man who discovered Escher”, bis 1. 10. „Just Like Escher”, 3. 11.–23. 3. 2024, www.escherinhetpaleis.nl.
Art Museum: “Escher – Other World”, until September 10th, www.kunstmuseum.nl.
Museum Bredius: “Optical illusion long before Escher”, bis 31. 9., www.en.museumbredius.nl.
Linden fore: “This far and further” (including Man Ray, Ai Weiwei). Special feature: “Silent on Socks” tours: through the museum in socks, without a cell phone. www.voorlinden.nl.
Culinary delights on the beach: De Waterreus, centrally located on the promenade and beach, for snacks, coffee and cocktails, lunch and dinner. www.waterreus.nl.
The Hague Marina Beach: Located directly on the pier, 226 hotel rooms, Bar & Brasserie Willem I, with pool on top, www.inntelhotelsdenhaagmarinabeach.nl.
Infos: Den Hague Tourism, www.thehague.com, www.escher2023.nl/en/citydressing.
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