Jan Giliam
Eight works for Historama Wereld in Best (NL)
In 2023, curator Ben Gort acquired eight works for Historama Wereld in Best, the Netherlands. Historama Wereld is a distinctive history museum featuring dioramas, vintage schoolplates, original artefacts, and narratives that unfold history in innovative ways. Gort deploys these dioramas to provoke discourse concerning warfare, conflict and historical inquiry, sometimes overtly, often obliquely.
His collection encompasses dioramas addressing disparate subject matter. Alongside works interrogating armed conflict sit iconic moments such as the solitary protestor confronting a tank at Tiananmen Square. Notably, certain dioramas are suffused with humour: the opening photographs depict a masterfully executed specimen featuring a war hero from Japanese anime. Behind this figure hangs one of the eight works, and together they form an integral whole, a distinctive curatorial gesture wherein artworks are deliberately juxtaposed with dioramic elements, inviting visitors to construct their own narratives from the dialogue between abstraction and representation. This layering introduces levity and unexpected resonance within the museum's contemplative terrain, whilst enabling viewers to participate actively in meaning-making.
Gort commissions dioramas from artisans whilst also acquiring exceptional existing pieces. His visitors frequently comprise military veterans and individuals with profound connections to historical events. Children visit alongside their parents, often drawn by the adjoining museums Bevrijdende Vleugels and Spelebos, creating intergenerational encounters wherein stories emerge in real time. These dialogues prove essential to the museum's mission: to animate history through shared discovery and lived experience, allowing visitors to process and make meaning of complex narratives.
The eight works are positioned at carefully selected junctures where Gort perceives the necessity of an abstract caesura. They offer visitors a moment of respite from linear exposition, an opportunity to pause and avert their gaze from explicit narrative, perhaps thereby to discern what remains unspoken. They function simultaneously as sanctuaries and catalysts for what has yet to be articulated.
Historama Wereld
Sonseweg 39
Best, The Netherlands
→ Explore the earlier collaboration: Verbeeld Bevrijding at Fort Honswijk
In 2023, curator Ben Gort acquired eight works for Historama Wereld in Best, the Netherlands. Historama Wereld is a distinctive history museum featuring dioramas, vintage schoolplates, original artefacts, and narratives that unfold history in innovative ways. Gort deploys these dioramas to provoke discourse concerning warfare, conflict and historical inquiry, sometimes overtly, often obliquely.
His collection encompasses dioramas addressing disparate subject matter. Alongside works interrogating armed conflict sit iconic moments such as the solitary protestor confronting a tank at Tiananmen Square. Notably, certain dioramas are suffused with humour: the opening photographs depict a masterfully executed specimen featuring a war hero from Japanese anime. Behind this figure hangs one of the eight works, and together they form an integral whole, a distinctive curatorial gesture wherein artworks are deliberately juxtaposed with dioramic elements, inviting visitors to construct their own narratives from the dialogue between abstraction and representation. This layering introduces levity and unexpected resonance within the museum's contemplative terrain, whilst enabling viewers to participate actively in meaning-making.
Gort commissions dioramas from artisans whilst also acquiring exceptional existing pieces. His visitors frequently comprise military veterans and individuals with profound connections to historical events. Children visit alongside their parents, often drawn by the adjoining museums Bevrijdende Vleugels and Spelebos, creating intergenerational encounters wherein stories emerge in real time. These dialogues prove essential to the museum's mission: to animate history through shared discovery and lived experience, allowing visitors to process and make meaning of complex narratives.
The eight works are positioned at carefully selected junctures where Gort perceives the necessity of an abstract caesura. They offer visitors a moment of respite from linear exposition, an opportunity to pause and avert their gaze from explicit narrative, perhaps thereby to discern what remains unspoken. They function simultaneously as sanctuaries and catalysts for what has yet to be articulated.
Historama Wereld
Sonseweg 39
Best, The Netherlands
→ Explore the earlier collaboration: Verbeeld Bevrijding at Fort Honswijk