Museums à la mode

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers isn’t just a painting, you know. It’s a crazy party of orange and yellow that you can dive into for intense floral funtimes. 

To promote next month's Museumnacht (Museum Night) in Amsterdam, Czar director Kay Lindhout and photographer Julia Marino have created The First Time, a visually arresting campaign, shot on 35mm film with hand-drawn animations by Midhat Avdagic, that encourages youngsters to discover just how unboring a museum can be. 

The film exhorts viewers to “forget everything you’ve been told and make your own mind up” and to realise they are free to respond in any way to artistic or historical exhibits. 

“I think seeing art, seeing performance, seeing cultural artifacts and history has a unique way of opening up new views in your mind; 'alternative realities'," says Lindhout. "More simply: when you look at art you get to tap in to someone else’s memories and creativity, and enrich your own world with it.” Quite so. 

Lindhout came up with the initial concept which he developed alongside creatives Scott Kooken and Michael James Philips. Czar photographer Julia Marino then came on board, adding her creative ideas, alongside Jordan den Haan, Brand Manager of the client N8, an events and strategy planning consultancy.