To celebrate Queen Beatrix’s 25th Jubilee, the Stichting Regentenkamer
(Trustees’ Room Foundation) in The Hague organized an exhibition under the
heading of 25 Tronen voor Beatrix (25 Thrones for Beatrix), for which
promising and established designers were invited to express their views on the
royal family in the form of a throne. The exhibition opened in The Hague on 30
April, the day on which the Netherlands celebrates the Queen’s birthday, and
is now travelling across the Netherlands. In August, the exhibition will be on
show in Heerlen, first of all, from 3 until 18 August, at Royal DSM’s head
office, and then, from 21 August until 11 September, at the Glaspaleis –
Heerlen’s recently renovated arts centre.
On 30 April 2005 it was exactly 25 years ago that Beatrix succeeded her mother
as Queen of the Netherlands. To celebrate her silver jubilee, the Stichting
Regentenkamer organized an exhibition under the heading of 25 Tronen voor
Beatrix – a throne for each of the years that she has been queen. The thrones
express the participating designers’ views on the royal family in general, and
Queen Beatrix in particular. The unique works of art, some of which are more
than life-size, make for a much-talked about exhibition.
The exhibited thrones were specially made for this exhibition following a
competition, for which designs were submitted from all over the Netherlands.
The members of the committee responsible for selecting the winning designs
are: Hans Dijkstal (former minister and a member of the Trustees’ Room’s
board), Liesbeth in’t Hout (director of the Eindhoven Design Academy), David
Gosker (director of the design company Gosker Ontwerp), Titus Eliëns (head of
the collections of the Gemeentemuseum (Municipal Museum) in The Hague) and Wim
van der Valk (of the architects’ firm 3TO).
Some of the designers have only just graduated, while others have already
built up an impressive career. But irrespective of their experience, they all
felt inspired by the many-sided personality of Queen Beatrix. Each throne is
unique and expresses a particular aspect of royalty: from the ‘crush barriers
throne’ by Dinand Vallentgoed to the throne inspired by Beatrix’s coiffure
designed by Renate Vos. The latter throne (seen below) was sponsored by DSM
and has been purchased for DSM’s Art Collection.
