The Invisible Collection focuses on people’s stories about their favorite work of art. The Amsterdam based art initiative Mediamatic originally created the project in 2018 to help the visually impaired to imagine works of art based on audio descriptions by art experts.
In 2019, Marres developed a new version of The Invisible Collection by opening it up also for non-experts. Since then, Marres collected over 75 stories from a diverse group of story tellers among whom are artists, school children and elderly people.
Education
Marres also launched The Invisible Collection at elementary schools. Children in which describe their favorite works of art by telling what they feel or think when they experience an artwork. The project aims at letting children reflect on their perception and the experiences of others. This archive of art stories enables teachers to discuss concepts such as identity, culture, society, language and history from different perspectives. The initiative was nominated for the Dutch Museum Education Prize 2019.
A workshop for The Invisible Collection is available for primary and secondary schools.
Listen to a collection of art stories
Take Me To The Water To Be Baptized, Lhola Amira, by Khanyisile Mbongwa
Khanyisile Mbongwa lives in Cape Town and is a sociologist, independent curator and award-winning artist.
Flower construction, Anne ten Donkelaar by Anna & Bastian Harris
Imagine a big bang, a firework of flower seeds thrown into space. What would happen? Mother and son talk about this work in the most heart warming way.
Aftershock, James Turell by Gry Worre Hallberg
‘Aftershock’ is an immersive installation created specifically for Copenhagen Contemporary by the American artist James Turrell. It was exhibited from 2022 to 2024.
Describing this work is Gry Worre Hallberg, artistic director of the performance group and movement ‘Sisters Hope’ in Denmark.
Between, Jinju Lee by Jada Posthuma
The 19-year-old Jada Posthuma is studying at the Vistacollege in Heerlen, pursuing a course in music. During her internship at Marres, she recorded a story describing the work ‘Between’ by Korean artist Jinju Lee.
Tina at the Eiffel Tower, Peter Lindberg by Mark Versbach (EN)
An iconic photo by Peter Lindberg, passionately described by Mark Versbach.
Listen to our podcasts
You can also enjoy listening to our podcast Sensing Art, Training the Body.
