Featuring 120 artworks, the Delinking and relinking collection presentation spans all five floors of the museum's collection wing. You will travel over five floors of the Van Abbemuseum’s collection building from the last century to the present day. It takes you on a journey into the lives of artists and their artworks. The exhibition invites you to experience art differently. Sometimes in the literal sense, by touching, smelling or listening to it; other times metaphorically, by giving expression to different, lesser-known voices.

The exhibition shows how artists respond to different cultures and how they struggle with the great questions of their time. It shows how their artworks are directly linked to what they see, feel and experience around them. Mostly inspiring and occasionally confrontational, Delinking and relinking spans more than a century of art history, with Hommage à Apollinaire van Marc Chagall uit 1913 as earliest work and This means tableau from 2019 by Laure Prouvost as most recent work.

Multi-sensory

With over 25 multi-sensory tools, including texts in Braille, scent interpretations, tactile drawings and soundscapes, Delinking and relinking represents the first, fully multi-sensory collection display in the Netherlands. Besides enriching the museum experience for everyone, the exhibition is accessible to a wide audience, including visually or hearing-impaired visitors and wheelchair users.

Five free multi-media tours

You have the option of five different media tours to guide you through the exhibition. The Introduction Tour and Family Tour offer a general overview for both young and old. If you want to deepen your visit, you can also choose the Bodily Encounters Tour, the Love Letters Tour or The Broader Story Tour. You can access the tours for free by downloading the Smartify app on your smartphone.

Broader perspectives

The exhibition was developed in collaboration with various experts in the field of physical accessibility. Also consulted were The office of queer affairs and Wie zijn wij (Who are we), two interest groups that have a long-standing working relationship with the museum to help introduce broader perspectives to the museum.