Undone

Undone - Hans van Houwelingen

In a profound and sly commentary on how we create history, Dutch artist Hans van Houwelingen proposes switching the places of two important historical statues in the Netherlands. The artist suggests that the Amsterdam statue of the first prime minister of the Netherlands, Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, should be in The Hague - the administrative seat of the country's government - and that a statue of Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza should be in Thorbecke's spot in Amsterdam, the center of Dutch culture and arts. Correcting the historical inaccuracy in their placement could trigger a crucial re-evaluation of the politician's and the philosopher's legacies in relation to today's political and moral unrest. Hans van Houwelingen shares his critical viewpoint on art in public spaces along with compelling essays by Brian Dillion, editor of Cabinet magazine, Julia Bryan-Wilson, art historian at UC Berkeley, Mark Jarzombek, Professor of the History and Theory and Associate Dean at MIT's School of Architecture, along with many more.