Over the past decade, museums around the world, but especially in Europe and North America, have taken more or less active steps to correct blind spots and systemic flaws in their collecting practices, hiring and operating. These reforms were initiated or stimulated by both internal and external pressures. These institutional changes are at the center of the documentary by Sarah Vos White balls on the walls (Currently play at the Film Forum in New York), which examines how a museum, the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum– actually does the job of trying to change from within.
The film is set against the backdrop of the pandemic, as the museum’s new director, Rein Wolfs, steps into the role and attempts to drastically change the culture of the museum. It offers an unwavering view of how issues of inclusion are discussed and turned into politics, who decides which artists’ works are acquired and displayed in museum exhibitions, and who is in the room when those decisions are made.
Stedelijk director Rein Wolfs in a scene from White balls on the walls (2022) Courtesy of Zeppers Film, NTR and Icarus Films
The opening scene features a meeting between Wolfs and the deputy mayor of Amsterdam, who insists to the museum director that in order to maintain its funding, the Stedelijk must reach out to all citizens of Amsterdam. Specific questions are raised: How can we address issues of diversity in art? And how to address gender issues in art? Vos follows as Wolfs debates and dissects these questions with his team over the following months. This in turn leads to complicated questions about labels, titles of paintings and the context in which they are seen today, political correctness and how the museum positions itself on all these issues.
Vos’ nearly total access to museum staff over several months conveys the details that come with running a museum – the countless meetings and day-to-day activities – but also how they attempt to implement a diversity and diversity plan. inclusion, with the Wolfs Framework of Ambitious Goals. What museum executives and workers are trying to do is no easy task, and doing it in real time in front of a film crew adds another layer of tension.
A scene from White balls on the walls (2022) Courtesy of Zeppers Film, NTR and Icarus Films
Vos makes a point of focusing on language, especially as the almost all-white people try to create inclusive structures. Museum curators want to overhaul their acquisition policies to the point that half of their collection is made up of artists who are neither of Western European nor North American descent, but cannot decide whether “origin” or “origin ” is the right choice of word. This turns into questions within questions that staff struggle to answer and unravel.
Early in his tenure, Wolfs hired Charl Landvreugd, a black man, to head the museum’s research and curatorial practice in an effort to diversify the staff. Vos devotes a good part of the documentary to Landvreugd, his approaches to art and how to deal with the challenges facing the museum. This raises important questions about emotional labor given Landvreugd’s position as a prominent person of color on the staff who has been tasked with helping to diversify the museum. Tensions grow as the museum’s white administrators unpack their own gender and race issues in often uncomfortable ways.
A scene from White balls on the walls (2022) Courtesy of Zeppers Film, NTR and Icarus Films
Wolfs, as the de facto protagonist, is disarmingly funny and straightforward, and seems to thrive under pressure. Nevertheless, White balls on the walls is tedious in places and requires a lot of attention from viewers to simultaneously follow what is happening in the Stedelijk and in the wider cultural context of the Netherlands and beyond. The film offers insight into the inner workings of an art museum struggling to implement change. For Wolfs and his team, letting themselves be filmed through this difficult process is generous and sometimes feels like a social experiment to see just how much they can accomplish under the microscope.
The power that museums wield, their inner workings, and the never-before-done task of better serving their communities are very complicated issues to address, especially in a nuanced and compelling way. Vos’s film provides vital context as it charts the uncomfortable and unglamorous affair of changing museum culture.
- White balls on the wallsnow play Cinema Forumnew York
