Amsterdam Royal Palace
2015
9 colored-in collages
mounted
on paper
(one work)
each mounted on
60 x 45 cm
Luuk Wilmering
In 2015, I created the work Amsterdam Royal Palace, which consists of nine collages that form a whole. The visitors who populate the rooms of the Royal Palace in this work come from the photo book De reis door den Indischen Archipel (The Journey through the Indian Archipelago), published by Prince Leopold II of Belgium in 1928. A journey he made at the invitation of Queen Wilhelmina. It is as if those Indonesian visitors have now come to see what we have done with all the riches obtained from the colonies
The Royal Palace was built in the 17th century as Amsterdam's new city hall and was intended to convey the message that Amsterdam was the centre of the world at that time. It was donated to King Louis Napoleon in 1808 and, after French rule, came into the hands of King William I. It was under William I that the initiative was taken to expand and strengthen Dutch influence and control over the colonies.
Can you really say that you bear no responsibility for the actions of your ancestors? The overwhelming income from profits in the former Dutch East Indies had an enormous impact on prosperity in the Netherlands. Traces of that wealth are still visible everywhere, in things we all too easily take for granted. The colonial past is not only about victimhood, but also about awareness of perpetration.
