AMSTERDAM.- The exhibition How Far How Near – The World in the Stedelijk argues for a greater emphasis on art from outside Europe and North America. Although the artworks were created at different times, they remain remarkably relevant today.

In 2003, Ad van Denderen photographed posters commemorating Palestinian suicide bombers. A socially-committed photographer, van Denderen increasingly sought new ways to depict military conflict, poverty, violence, and human suffering. For this series, he made a straightforward photographic record of posters of suicide bombers used by groups such as Hamas, Jihad Islamia and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade as propaganda in the conflict with Israel. By glorifying the dead fighters and portraying them as martyrs, the posters incite others to follow their example. This is the first time that Van Denderen’s series, part of the Stedelijk Museum’s collection since 2009, has been on public display at the museum.

For How Far How Near the Stedelijk also commissioned new work from two artists: Lidwien van de Ven and Godfried Donkor.

Godfried Donkor explores mass communication and challenges the stereotypes that are presented in the print media.

Donkor developed the wallpaper during a work period in Johannesburg. The collage’s central motif derives from a 17th century German coat of arms, and features a Moorish figure. The motif is flanked by two Johannesburg icons, the holy ibis and a photo of ‘short boy’, a reference to the impoverished black workers who gather recyclable plastic on the street.

Against an orange background (Holland’s national color), the emblem pairs Dutch colonialism and slavery with migration and poverty. But it does so without telling any clear historical story, or offering a pat solution. The works suggests that the past haunts our present in the form of the casual and lingering use of racial stereotypes presented here in the guise of innocent wallpaper.

Geopolitical conflicts and the ensuing migration flows are recurrent themes in the work of Lidwien van de Ven. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, she has closely followed political discussions around Islam and the rise of right-wing populism in Western Europe. Made especially for the exhibi- tion, her new work enters into dialogue with the monumental Fête Africaine (2012) by Abdoulaye Konaté. It is an equally large montage of photos of a group of asylum seekers who recently bivouacked near the Brandenburg Tower in the heart of Berlin in protest against their conditions as refugees. Where Fête Africaine, an abstract scene of a colorful parade in Mali, responds to a sudden outburst of freedom fighting in the North of the country, the work of Van de Ven investigates the impact such a distant conflict may have on a world much closer to home.

The asylum seekers’ protests against the maze of conflicting provincial, national and European immigration legislation and their years of harsh social conditions garnered support in both Germany and abroad. Their experiences are shared by refugees currently living in the Netherlands and Amsterdam.

Presenting a broad selection of works from the Stedelijk’s historic and contemporary collections, HOW FAR HOW NEAR opens a fundamental debate about globalization in contemporary art.

As Stedelijk Director Beatrix Ruf says, “We need to investigate in depth the research and transparency of collections and the activation of the many hidden narratives. In that way, we can expand ways of our knowledge production. The task that museum institutions have is not just expanding a collection physically, but also mentally. What other stories lay behind the works? How Far How Near shows how the works in the collection of the Stedelijk can stimulate new dialogues, and that is a topic that I find pivotal.”

The inspiration of the exhibition is the historic blockbuster presentation Moderne Kunst – Nieuw en Oud (1955). It presented work by modern artists like Klee, Picasso, Lipschitz, and Mondriaan amid African masks, Polynesian bark paintings, and decorated shields from Papua.

Moderne Kunst – Nieuw en Oud anticipated groundbreaking and much-discussed exhibitions such as Primitivism in 20th Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1984) and Magiciens de la Terre in Centre Pompidou, Paris (1989). However, Moderne Kunst – Nieuw en Oud did not impel the Stedelijk to acquire more art from the decolonized regions or “the rest” of the world, with the exception of the poster and photography collections. Now, following in the footsteps of other major museums such as Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou, things are changing.