Fly Me
To The Moon
Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam
2006
The core item of Fly Me To The Moon, a moon rock, is the oldest object in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. The crew of the first manned lunar landing mission, Apollo 11, brought this rock back to earth in 1969. That same year the three astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins visited the Netherlands. Willem Drees, a former Dutch prime minister, received the rock on that occasion as a present from the United States ambassador. And later, this piece of stone was donated to the Rijksmuseum.
What establishes a public collection, how to define the origin and authenticity of objects, and respond to issues of ownership and colonialism? The moon rock creates links between the site of the museum, the city, the collection and its own origins. These links are examined from various perspectives. In the background are questions concerning the public and private significance of a collection, national identity, the role and economic factor of a museum for a city and country, ownership and the future of collections, and other questions of public interest.
Fly Me To The Moon is commissioned by the Rijksmuseum and the Rijksgebouwendienst as part of the closure of the building and the relocation of the entire collection due to the museum’s complete renovation between 2003 and 2013. The artists donated the deeds and project-related printed matter to the collection of the Rijksmuseum, thus adding new and critical layers to the collection.
Suppose the Rijksmuseum were in the market for a site on the moon in the near or distant future? Would it be sensible for the Rijksmuseum to purchase a lunar plot where it can safely house its collection? Since the “discovery” of the moon, people have laid claim to it, symbolic or genuine. The moon has resources that could potentially be extracted. It may become possible for people to live on the moon someday. Pending future developments, there is a lively Internet trade in deeds to pieces of the moon. The legality of this form of private enterprise is obviously debatable, and yet...
Different narratives are explored through the exhibition of the stone in one of the highest towers of the Rijksmuseum, tours by a guide lead by a 'dynamic script', public talks, purchase of a lunar deed of the size of the area of the Rijksmuseum, posters in public busstops and a publication Fly Me To The Moon, designed by Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal with texts by Jennifer Allen, Bik Van der Pol, Wouter Davidts, Frans Von der Dunk and Jane Rendell, and a communication strategy supported by ING.
Epilogue: Geologists from the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam asked the museum to examine the rock. The museum initially turned down this request, but a few years later they were granted permission after all. It soon became clear that the moon rock from the Rijksmuseum’s collection was in fact fossilised wood and could therefore not possibly have come from the moon. The news spread like wildfire.
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