Museum D8888 | When the twins were still beautiful

With 'When the Twins Were Still Beautiful', Kuijpers invites you to take a fresh look at the significance of these icons and how images change over time.

For most people, the Twin Towers are inextricably linked to the attacks of 11 September 2001. It was 25 years ago this year. But before that day, the towers stood for something quite different. They were a symbol of economic strength, modernity, and the spirit of New York. That forgotten significance is at the heart of *When the Twins were still beautiful* by artist and collector Thomas Kuijpers.

The exhibition is on display in the chapel of Museum Dr8888 and consists of a display of hundreds of everyday objects in which the Twin Towers are still a natural part of daily life. Tourist photographs, postcards, jigsaw puzzles, snow globes, books, souvenirs and film clips. Objects that were never intended as historical documents, but which have come to be regarded as such in the wake of the events of 11 September.

Thomas Kuijpers first became aware of the Twin Towers when he was sixteen. Together with his mother, he watched the live footage of the towers collapsing. “Never before had I felt the power of a media image hit me so clearly. The constant repetition of the collapsing towers made a deep impression on me.” 

A few years later, he found an oil painting of the Twin Towers in a charity shop, created by an unknown artist named Giacomo. The label simply read: painted before 2001. Suddenly, Kuijpers was no longer looking at the attacks, but at the world before them. That moment marked the beginning of his remarkable collection, which now comprises hundreds of objects. His collection is still growing. It shows how everyday objects unexpectedly become vessels of history and memory.

"Giacomo’s painting created, for the first time, a space in my perception to see the towers as something that remained standing – a celebration of their splendour and grandeur – an image that had never before existed in my mind, because they always began to collapse the moment I saw them."

Thomas Kuijpers

About Thomas Kuijpers

Thomas Kuijpers (1985) studied photography at AKV St. Joost in Breda. His work has previously been exhibited at Museum Dr8888 during the Noorderlicht Biennale. With *When the Twins were still beautiful*, he returns to the museum. In his work, Kuijpers explores how images influence our memories and how historical events can alter the meaning of an image. As such, the exhibition ties in well with the social ethos of Museum Dr8888, where art invites you to look at the world around you in a different way. Furthermore, Thomas Kuijpers’s eclectic collection fits in well with the museum’s Dadaist ethos. Objects that may not have any particular value in their own right take on a new meaning when brought together. In this way, Kuijpers encourages visitors to reflect on what makes an image special and what meaning we ourselves attribute to it.