Collection as Cosmos

Collection as Cosmos explores time and the stories art can tell. The exhibition challenges the idea of art history as one, continuous timeline. Instead of measuring time, it focuses on the constellations and connections we can create with artworks across time.

Celebrating its 90th birthday in 2026, the Van Abbemuseum presents a new collection display that offers a fresh perspective on time and rethinks the way we look at our collection. Like constellations of stars in the night sky, 250 artworks are spread across the museum’s three floors. They do not follow a fixed timeline or chronological order.

By linking personal stories to larger cycles, the exhibition brings together different rhythms of time, from human histories to time on a cosmic scale. With Collection as Cosmos, the Van Abbemuseum moves away from presenting a single truth or a straight line through time. Instead, it becomes a space where multiple times and stories exist side by side. The exhibition stimulates wonder, invites new perspectives, and opens up a lively dialogue with time.

Four approaches to time

Collection as Cosmos presents the museum collection in an open, dynamic way. You are invited to experience time in four different ways:

Unchronological time By moving away from a chronological order, the museum has created space for new stories. Ninety neighbours are invited to contribute to the exhibition by lending an object from their everyday life. With their objects, these storytellers take you on a journey through time. The objects act as portals: they connect personal stories and memories to artworks in the collection, such as a pink alarm clock linked by narrator Ron Vogels to the painting JULY 4, 1973 ‘Wednesday’ by artist On Kawara. This method was developed with the Johannesburg working group of Another Roadmap Africa Cluster (ARAC).

Regenerative time Life and death, celebration and loss. In her work, artist and death researcher G explores what grief and mourning can look like. How do we deal with these moments in the cycle of life? And what do they mean in a museum that collects, preserves and, sometimes, removes artworks from the collection? How do you say goodbye to an artwork?

Public time How can we experience the outside in a museum? This approach questions museum frameworks such as walls and opening hours. In one room, arranged like a forest of sculptures and installations, you pass under an inflatable arch inspired by a marathon finish line. In this work, Ima-Abasi Okon develops ideas from her 2025 solo exhibition, where she challenged the way we usually measure time, based on her running practice.

Cosmic times How does the night sky connect to the land and to agriculture? This fourth approach to time focuses on cycles of sowing and harvesting, linking cosmic and earthly rhythms. It is developed with artist Nolan Oswald Dennis and is based on their installation Black Liberation Zodiac (Khunuseti).