1:1 Period Rooms
31 January 2015 - 5 April 2015
Museum Memories
Period rooms are enjoying a revival. The Rijksmuseum has restored the Beuningkamer, an 18th-century rococo interior, and the Louvre recently began showcasing its collection of 18th-century decorative art in a series of period rooms and themed galleries. Where does this renewed interest come from?
Chippendale Room, Surrey before its opening in 1928 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
In the late 19th century, a period room, with its furniture, wall coverings and works of art, was meant to give a stylistically pure impression of a specific era. But in practice, period rooms had more to say about the era in which they were created than the ones they were meant to represent. So what does museums' current interest in period rooms have to tell us about how we deal with the past?
At this evening event, the interior historian Barbara Laan will outline the rise, fall and rebirth of the period room in the western European museum and discuss some contemporary interpretations. The artist Amie Dicke and the curator and critic Michiel van Iersel will take us behind the facade of the period room's perfectly reconstructed interior. Finally: what uses might be found for old interiors languishing in museum vaults? Paul Spies, director of the Amsterdam Museum, and Edwin Jacobs, director of the Centraal Museum Utrecht, will discuss possible answers; Martijn Blekendaal, programme maker at NTR, will act as moderator.)
An historic interior now forms the exterior wall of a new building complex on Potsdamerplatz in Berlin. The interior originates from the Esplanade Hotel, which was demolished in 1996 (photo: Wicho)
[Pop-up presentation](http://11-stijlkamers.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/popup-presentation)
During the 1:1 Symposium visitors could also view a small presenation in Het Nieuwe Instituut's foyer featuring original material from the collection on period rooms and model interiors, such as the period room in the Rijksmuseum, Berlage's model drawing room for the Wertheim company in Berlin (1908), the 'In Holland staat een Huis' exhibition (Stedelijk Museum, 1940) and model interiors by the Goed Wonen foundation (1950s en 60s).