MU is very now

MU is one of the most hybrid places for art around. It’s always worth your while having a look. So it’s not a museum and there is no fixed collection. Anything is possible in principle: from street art to fashion, from architecture to digital or visual art. It’s very much ‘now’, lively and topical. “It’s easier to define what we aren’t than what we are”, says Angelique Spaninks, MU director. “But there are few presentation institutes in the Netherlands that operate in the digital domain so explicitly. And the link with design is also there most of the time. In addition, we offer different perspectives on the interwovenness of culture and nature, people and technology. That’s called Bio Art or Next Nature, which enjoys increasing interest. A good example is our new exhibition this summer, called ‘’Weather or not”, which is about climate and climate change in artists’ work. Or the annually presented Bio Art & Design Award at MU.”

Proud of Dutch Design Week

MU moved from the Witte Dame to Strijp‑S in 2015. How are things here? “Great, especially because the area is still not finished. Everyone knows each other, it’s really kind of a village. Not a rural village but an international village. Funny to link the very local to the metropolitan reputation that is definitely there. You have to respect that when you work or live here. Sometimes it is remarkably quiet and sometimes it is busy due to a festival. You do have to want to move along with that as a resident or user, go with the flow. We have an excellent cultural climate in Eindhoven, and Strijp‑S certainly contributes to that. Take the Dutch Design Week, that’s quite unique, Eindhoven can be more than proud of that.”

Varied workshops

Besides exhibitions, a considerable part of MU’s activities consist of workshops with elderly people, children, students or a combination of those groups. “Not everyone knows that we actively look for seniors in the neighbourhoods. Kunstroute 65, that’s called. About 250 elderly people were here the other day playing Next Nature Memory and looking at the exhibition. That produces interesting discussions on either side. We’ve also been building a flip lab for a few years now, where the young teach the elderly. This is in fact rarely one‑way traffic; they actually learn from each other. A lot of what we do is hidden from view. I do think that’s a shame really. We aren’t very loud, but do really want to help people across the imaginary threshold that today’s art seems to throw up. The door is always open for everyone and it is often free too.

Making a splash in public space

MU in the long term? We keep doing what we’re doing, keeping our finger on the pulse of tomorrow’s makers. In addition, I would like more visibility in the area, draw MU outside our walls. That takes you into the field of urban art, but not graffiti because that’s alive enough. Something else that fits here and that speaks, in which technology plays a part. Something like John Körmeling’s revolving house in Tilburg. It doesn’t have to be from a famous artist, as long as the work itself makes a splash. MU is going to try and make that happen. But you don’t achieve this on your own. You need cooperation with Park Strijp Beheer, with Trudo, with the municipality and the residents. In addition, it is important that investments are made and by that I don’t just mean economic, but also cultural and in the way of ambition. Dare to leave it open and don’t smother it in a marketing sauce beforehand. Strijp‑S is a place where wild ideas grow, that you have to see and feel.”