Aside from its rich art and design heritage, the Netherlands
is also home to an impressive number of museum dedicated to the surreal, the
seductive and the just plain silly.

by Anna J. Kutor

As a country heralded for its culture and artistic heritage,
the Netherlands features a multitude of museums devoted to many different
genres of art. The Vincent van Gogh and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Hague’s
Mauritshuis and the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam are not only
world-renowned cultural institutions but they also top the ‘must see’ list of
every traveller craving a classic art fix. These timeless temples of culture
are revered and appreciated by the masses for many good reasons, but it has to
be said, they offer little by way of thrills to most people. For a real
artist’s adventure, urban explorers should check out the country’s expanding
selection of weird and wacky museums that are inspiring in more ways than one.

The premier jumping-off point for explorations in eccentric
and esoteric domains is Amsterdam, the Dutch cradle of contemporary culture. Celebrating
the art of love making in all its diverse flavors is The Erotic Museum (aka the
Venus Temple), the world’s first sex museum, set up in 1985. Part sexual
education, part voyeuristic entertainment, this culturally-savvy erotic
store-house hosts three storeys of adult-only sexual art in a 17th century
building located just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Central Station.
Amongst the over-growing selection of titillating objects - arranged in a
succession so sinuous rooms, each named after amorous historical figures such
as the Marquis de Sade, Oscar Wilde and Peruvian painter, Joaquin Alberto
Vargas - are lewd paintings, pornographic cartoons, ivory dildos, fornicating
Indian sculptures and antique fetish wear, to name but a few of the intimate
items.

Deadly Displays

When it comes to cultural institutions that speak to the
grandeur of the absurd and the downright ridiculous, the Amsterdam Dungeon
takes the country’s blood-curdling crown. A petrifying playground slap bang in
the heart of Amsterdam’s tourist artery, this turbocharged attraction promises
a hand-on guide to the historic horrors of Holland, from horrible atrocities of
the Dutch East India company to the dramatised subterranean labyrinth mimicking
the shady streets of Amsterdam Phillips illumination. Abandoning fun-park fear
tactics for true-to-life tactics for more true-to-life trauma, the Torture
Museum, adjacent to the Flower Market on Singel, positions itself as a weird
half-house of torture and education. The two-floor exhibition is a
fear-inducing affair presenting a potpourri of pain-inflicting instruments,
including iron gags, skull crackers, heretic fork and an inquisition chair that
“should subject the body to total torment”.

Channelling a similar eerie vibe is the Nederlands Uitvaart
Museum ‘Tot Zover’, or Dutch Funerary Museum ‘Thus Far’, one of the newest
additions to Amsterdam’s art scene. Rather aptly located on the grounds of the
Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats cemetery since the end of 2007, the mournful museum
spotlights the ephemeral nature of human existence through a series of
death-related objects and mourning rituals. The collection is organized around
four themes: the body; rituals; memento mori; and mourning and remembering.
Amongst the displayed ritualistic items are seven wooden coffins each filled
with culture and religion-based funerary heirlooms (including Jewish, Hindu,
Chinese and Catholic) that range from flower blends to holy books, candles to
cigarettes. This room also boasts the moving “You and Me”
installation comprising a vast number of suspended images of deceased loved
ones. Elsewhere, in two smaller back rooms, visitors can learn about cremation
practises and view a variety of quirky artefacts along the lines of plastic
skeletons, black crow birds taxidermy, sinful substances and even an old-school
computer spelling out the worlds Game Over.

Safeguarding the past

For a glimpse into the reality of army life during wartime
years, militarily and historically interested day trippers should head to the
Bunker Museum WN2000 in the northern town of IJmuiden. A series of coastal
strongholds converted into exhibition space, the museum features a sizable
stock of World War II memorabilia, including weapons, uniforms and tools of
communication from both the German occupation and the Allied armies. There’s
also a completely reconstructed residence, a distance meter and a large
assortment of photographs. This sombre spectacle of concrete structures was
saved from destruction by the WN2000 Foundation (an abbreviation of the German
word for stronghold (Widerstandsnest) and the year in which it was established),
refurbished and opened to the public in 2004. Each year, the premises can be
visited from May throughout the summer season.