For the exhibition "State of Wander" at the Royal Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Holland, I have build a large site-specific installation. It's the first time the Royal Palace hosts such contemporary art-exhibition.
The show has been curated by Anya Bitkina and it has been supported by the Mondriaanfoundation.
To be seen until the 27th. of September
https://paleishetloo.nl/bezoek/agenda/state-of-wander
About the work by Rob Voerman:
The work reflects on former Queen Wilhelmina, often remembered as a nature lover. Yet her relationship to nature largely reflected ideals of order, cultivation, and representation shaped by royal aesthetics and governance. Although she supported initiatives such as the foundation of one of the first protected primeval forests (oerbos) in the Netherlands, her engagement with landscape remained embedded in systems of control and estate management. The work holds this ambivalence in tension.
In this work, the artist decisively shifts the Queen’s perspective. Rather than observing the world from within the wealth and protection of the palace, she is relocated to a modest dwelling and positioned to look back at the palace from the outside. This inversion of viewpoint sharpens the contrast between authority and vulnerability, prompting a critical reflection on power, distance, and privilege.
Developed in collaboration with insect specialists, the pavilion also functions as a small ecosystem, supporting insect life and evoking the complexity of a primeval forest. In this sense, it is both symbolic and materially alive.
The work carries a personal dimension. Growing up in the highly engineered Dutch landscape, where nearly every square meter is designed, Voerman developed a sensitivity to the absence of unregulated spaces. As a child, his room became a sanctuary for plants; similarly, this hut operates as a refuge for forms of nature that resist rigid planning. The installation thus intertwines historical reflection, ecological critique, and personal memory within a spatial dialogue with the palace’s architecture and power structures.
Many thanks to Han Savelkoel, Bart Heijne, IVN Arnhem, and forest ranger Nina Kreisler