The Van Abbemuseum is one of the leading museums for modern and contemporary art in Europe. Since the opening in 1936, we have shown many acclaimed exhibitions and built an extensive, internationally renowned collection of more than 2700 works of art. The collections reputation is due to the quality of the individual works of art, among which are masterpieces by Picasso, Chagall, El Lissitzky, Beuys, Weiner, Gordon and McCarthy.

Living Archive is the title of a series of on-going documentary exhibitions which uses the archive of the Van Abbemuseum as starting point. Living Archive takes a position for or against an exhibition elsewhere in the museum, explains the context of a display or acquisition, or comments on museum policy.
The first display - in the five Living Archive rooms - looks back at the directorship of Jean Leering (1964 1973). His policy is once again receiving attention, namely because by broadening a museum’s remit he tried to stimulate general public awareness of the processes of social change. This viewpoint embraced exhibitions like People’s Park (1970) and The Street. A Form of Living Together (1972).
But how did these presentations come about? What was their aim and how did the public react to something expressly intended to motivate independent opinion and social engagement?

Bilderdijklaan 10 Eindhoven