EINDHOVEN.- The Van Abbemuseum announced the acquisition of Tenderlymilitant.exe: A Weapon Armoury for the Queer-Feminist Counter Apocalypse by designer and researcher Anna Zoe Hamm, a recent graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven. The work joins the museum’s design collection, which was significantly enriched in 2022 by the landmark acquisition of fifty seminal works from Lidewij Edelkoort’s pioneering private collection.

Tenderlymilitant.exe was acquired on the recommendation of Lidewij Edelkoort. Following the acquisition of her collection, it was agreed that Edelkoort would be entitled to propose one new acquisition each year — a way to keep her collection current and to further intertwine it with the museum’s holdings.

Design as activism

This acquisition reflects Van Abbemuseum’s ongoing commitment to design as a speculative and artistic practice that engages with pressing social, ecological and political issues. Hamm’s graduation project presents an armoury of hand-crafted brooms, inspired by the self- defence mechanisms of plants—researched in botanical gardens and the archives of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. The work draws compelling parallels between the historical domination of plants and the broom’s association with domestic and feminised labour, reclaiming both from their weaponisation during the witch hunts.

Museum director Defne Ayas explains: “Tenderlymilitant.exe stands as a gentle yet powerful reminder of design as both activism and a poetic vector toward the future. The artist draws from femme ancestral lineages as well as the worlds of martial arts and video game engines—folding these influences into a future-mythological dimension. The work reminds us that we are our own ancestors, and that design can serve as a conduit for transformation in the face of today’s intensifying industrial build-up and global militarization—not only in our region, but worldwide.”

Raised between the Black Forest and London, Anna Zoe Hamm is an ecofeminist designer and researcher. Her work weaves together scientific inquiry and folklore, creating speculative artefacts and alternative publishing formats that activate embodied knowledge and promote communal world-building. She is currently beginning the Monstrous Futurities Master’s programme at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam.

In context of Bridging Minds

The acquisition complements the museum’s major design exhibition Bridging Minds, curated by Miriam van der Lubbe, on view from 4 October 2025 to 18 January 2026. The exhibition brings together around 100 works by leading designers and artists including Hella Jongerius, Maarten Baas, Formafantasma, Jalila Essaïdi, Christien Meindertsma, and Panamarenko—and occupies ten galleries in the museum’s historic Old Building. Addressing themes such as care, safety, inclusion, freedom and innovation, the exhibition features speculative materials, poetic gestures, smart tools and social interventions that showcase how design can both critique and reimagine the systems that shape our world.