Beyond the horizon

The Fries Museum in Leeuwarden will present two exhibitions of contemporary art from 24 May 2025 to 15 March 2026. When I saw the sun and the moon at the same time features the video installation of the same name by Tina Farifteh (Tehran, Iran, 1982), a 24-hour trip in 24 minutes along the Frisian Seedyk near the village of Sexbierum, where the artist currently resides. The other exhibition, Beyond the Horizon, is a presentation of works in our collection that reflect on our connection to the world around us. The works on display offer an alternative way of contemplating our surroundings in challenging times.

Beyond the horizon

It is the people who live in a landscape who give it meaning and influence it, and this is what guides the contemporary art collecting policy at the Fries Museum. In the exhibition Beyond the Horizon, artists with works in the Fries Museum’s collection assign significance to sea, tides, forest and specific areas such as the North Pole, the Wadden Sea and the rainforest in Suriname in different ways. For them, the connection with nature is the starting point, whether physical, spiritual, speculative or analytical. This presentation features new acquisitions alongside older works by Cristina Lucas, Ben Vautier, Henk de Vries, Wally Elenbaas, Witho Worms, Wout Berger, Constant Dullaart, Erin Jane Nelson, Dodi Espinosa, Kinke Kooi, Katja Novitskova, Marjet Zwaans & Totomboti and Juul Kraijer.

Cristina Lucas, The People that is Missing, 2019, video-installatie, courtesy tegenboschvanvreden.

Katja Novitskova, Earthware (nyt), 2022, inkt, epoxyklei, nagellak | Collectie Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, verworven met steun van

Kinke Kooi, Mimesis (4), 2019, acrylic, pencil, gouache on paper | Collectie Fries Museum, verworven met steun van het Mondriaan