Art in Tilburg...

The De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art was built in an old wool mill. Rather than tearing out the interior, the architects left the many small side rooms which lent itself well to displaying art installations, such as Deja Vu which featured ink dripping on a stack of newspapers with the latest edition put on top every day therefore capturing the time of the exhibiton.

I was very disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to bring in my camera as my phone just didn’t do justice to these sculptures—Great Spirits by German artist Thomas Schutte—or the rest of the museum.

It was fitting for the museum to have this sculpture of 42 bikes entitled Forever by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

By far my favorite pieces were by Anish Kapoor, an incredible British-Indian sculptor. This was Vertigo, which at first glance just looked like a large curved mirror. When Anne instructed me to stand in a particular spot in front of the mirror, something quite crazy happened: we appeared upside down.

She then instructed me to start walking towards the mirror which was easier said than done since seeing yourself grow bigger upside down is very disorienting. Strangely enough, just before hitting the mirror (there is a guard to ensure no one actually does hit the mirror), we appeared right-side up again. This piece definitely earned its name.

From behind, it just looked like the giant curved mirror that it is. Afterwards, we had a great lunch at Eetbar De Wagon, a charming café inside a train car from 1900. Anne was very kind to accompany me to Pink Panter’s house for the start of the hash, where I was about to see a whole different side to culture in Tilburg.