AAN DE SURINAAMSE GRACHTEN

An exhibition on the relationship between The family Van Loon and Suriname
client: Museum van Loon


The Museum van Loon director Gijs Schunselaar took the initiative to open the archives of the museum to explore the relationship of the family Van Loon and their ties with the former colony. The Amsterdam influence on the trade and slavery has always been very strong. The museum opened the doors with all honesty and and confronted itself with its past which resulted into a lot of respect from the Afro-Amsterdam community.

We decided to approach the campaign material with pieces shown in the exhibition and make a chain of posters to show the eight steps of the exhibition; roughly explained with the Amsterdam - Gold Coast - Suriname ties and trade routes. The wealth is shown with the proper golden foil on the posters and flyers placed over the full color photography. The process of printing and procedure was a real struggle, it was rejected by almost all printers due to the A0 size. Rene Knip gave great advice ("keep calling people, don't take no for an answer") and we ended up with a flatbed offset A0 printer sending 250 grams FC posters to a foil printer of carton boxes that needed to print with the plano stack sideways. It has become the most expensive street poster we've made.

Next to the campaignmaterial we designed a book with additional information.


thanks to:
Drukkerij De Groot
Foliedrukkerij Hensen