White, More Than a Colour
For centuries, white has played an important role in court culture. It has been used for beauty, status, ritual, and distinction. It is the colour of marble and ermine, porcelain and table linens, palaces and wedding dresses, snow-covered landscapes and burial shrouds. A colour that behaves as though it were no colour at all.
Remarkably many objects in the collection are white. What does white mean, then and now? This question forms the starting point of the exhibition White, More Than a Colour.
Beauty and superiority. Wealth and colonialism. Craftsmanship and environmental impact. Every object carries multiple stories. Every story is reflected in multiple objects.
A range of different voices, from contemporary socially engaged perspectives to experts in cultural history and art history, each shed light on white from their own point of view. Through a series of intimate encounters, they open new windows onto the past. Their insights provide tools for approaching and interpreting these objects anew in the present day.
From white as a colour, to white as a symbol, a status, a norm, a form of power, a history, a consequence. The objects remain what they are. What changes is what we recognize in them.