A beehive of cultural activity

By Edo Dijksterhuis

Exhibition maker Chantal van Hezik posed between designers Gert Dumbar (l) and Rob Hilz. (Photograph: Dieuwertje Komen)

THE HAGUE, 21 AUG. Annual number of visitors: 25 million. Dimensions: 100 metres by 60 centimetres. Erection time for exhibition: 20 minutes. If it's of any doing by designer Gert Dumbar, board member of the Foundation of the International Poster Gallery, then the Guiness Book of Records will have to be rewritten soon. In the categories most visited museum, narrowest museum and erected the fastest museum, The Hague will be the record holder after 2004. At that time the International Poster Gallery will be opened in the underground tram station at Spui Station. Of course, if the tram tunnel does not flood again.
The fact that there has to be more attention for posters in the Netherlands was a foregone conclusion for Dumbar, who designed posters for amongst others, the National Theatre and, together with architect Renzo Piano, made the first electronic poster for the façade of the KPN offices in Rotterdam. "Abroad, attention has already been paid for some time, and the auctioning prices have increased enormously in the past few years. There is a lot available in the Netherlands, such as at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, but that can be seen piecemeal".

It was also obvious to Dumbar that something special had to happen with The Hague Tram Tunnel. "Why should such a tunnel become a dark dungeon for drifters and not be a humming beehive of cultural activity?" The exhibition area under the ground is a solution which naturally is not the sum of two obviousnesses.

To architect Rob Hilz at LAB-DA, who carries out the design by the Rem Koolhaas company OMA, the idea of a gallery was not a complication but a bonus. "It absolutely fits into the total concept", he thinks. "This station is not a mono-functional tunnel but a building under the ground. Aside from a station there is also a parking garage, and it also connects to the basement entrances of the department stores. It is a kind of backbone under the ground with a complexity which is comparable to the city level above the ground.

Such a poster gallery works enrichingly; it also provides the building with a museological atmosphere. In this way the station is not only a transitory place but also a destination".

Those who walk into the station in three years time to catch the tram and Randstad train, will see the first posters hanging directly next to the ticket sales counter. One floor lower will then have a glass showcase wall along a ramp of a hundred metres with space for tens of posters, at some places reaching up to a height of thirteen metres. The architect liked the rock-like 'rustic concrete' walls so much that he has left them bare and simply added Belgian limestone for the floors and stainless steel panels to dampen the reverberation. An added advantage of the minimalistic furnishing and the integration of the gallery in an already planned building, is that the costs are limited: 2.4 million euro, of which the municipality of The Hague paid 1 million and the sponsors paid the rest.
Most of the money was spent on climatologic boxes which were specially developed by the University of Technology in Delft, in which the exhibited posters will be hung. Dumbar: "In the tunnel itself the predominant climate is like that outside, which is totally unsuitable for paper. Taking into consideration that we don't have a collection ourselves – that is also why we are not called a 'museum' – we are dependent on loans from collectors and museums. They demand museological circumstances – so too if the works hang directly next to a railway track. This kind of Micro Climate Box is actually no more than a mini-museum in a frame".

What makes the gallery completely 'high tech' is the system with which the exhibits can be changed around. Comparable to clothing items at a dry-cleaners, the posters hang on a transportation rail and at the touch of a button, can be directed to a 'marshalling yard' to be exchanged. There is no waiting time until after hours before the showcases can be opened and without causing delays for the tram passengers. In less than half an hour a set-up can be completely replaced. Dumbar: "Such dynamism makes it different from the usual kind of museum. It is a visual surprise machine. Commuters who come by in the morning could see a different exhibition on the return route in the evenings".
According to the exhibition maker Chantal van Hezik, the supply will be as wide-ranging as possible. "Of course we will exhibit the classic designers, from Jan Bons up to Anthon Beeke. However, we also want to give young designers the opportunity to show what they're doing by having competitions for example. Furthermore, there is also space for items such as antique commercial posters from department stores, or posters in line with the theme 'shocking designs in the nineteen-fifties'. We have contacts with almost all reputable private collectors and therefore have a good supply".

Provisionally the schedule has three national and three international exhibitions annually, of which at least one will be with a guest curator. Tram passengers or lovers of posters can see all of that for the price of a single zone on their ticket. Van Hezik: "Yes, it is very amenable and democratic, entirely in the spirit of posters. Nowadays printed media has vanished a little from the streets, but we're bringing the posters back where they belong: in the street, at the stations and on the platforms".