Knowledge and experience generally go hand in hand: but not in art. Anybody with a lot of knowledge about art may, after all, sometimes neglect to really experience the work. And on the contrary, for a naive viewer, the coin drops immediately: knowledge comes immediately on the back of understanding. The toddlers who are taken on a discovery trip of the museum by tour guide Bregje in episode 8 of Boijmans TV 2013, really don’t need her words of wisdom. They are happy (so happy!) and show that by unconsciously grabbing their nose when they see that Salvador Dalí has made a mess of things with the goddess Venus.

Arie too is happy when he discovers Erik van Lieshout in the hole of Cattelan and can finally ask what the artist has been doing since his major exhibition in 2006. Van Lieshout explains what he is good at and suggests that he is not a strict artist but a social one; what’s more, there’s room for further growth. The question, however, is whether he will ever achieve the stature of the married couple who continually creep away from the enthusiastic toddlers and so shyly and hesitatingly admire Van Lieshout’s ‘Masturbating Girl’.

Credits

Boijmans TV is a collaborative project of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, RTV Rijnmond and Ro Theater, developed with support from the VSBfonds and the Mediafonds. The series is produced by the Rotterdam production office Popov Film.

Contributors:

Sander Burger (final editing)
Kuba Szutkowski (producer)
Dragan Bakema (creative producer)
Edgar Kapp (production manager)
Jetse Batelaan (director of tours)
Wilfried de Jong (concept and interviews)
Els Hoek (research and editing)
And many others.