Past exhibitions

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag. In 1974, a group of artists squatted the building where the graphic workshop is still located. The Analog 74-24 festival celebrates this feat and looks to the future with an extensive program on activism and community. During the festival, Design Museum Dedel presents the exhibition Grafische Werkplaats Moet Blijven! with posters of the protest action (2012) against the cutbacks that threatened the workshop.

In 2012, the municipality came up with a drastic cutback plan for the arts sector, as a result of which the Grafische Werkplaats would have to close its doors. About fifty artists and designers took action against these disastrous plans. More than 1000 posters in 55 variations (all screen-printed in A2 format in the workshop) were distributed throughout the city, to make it clear that the Grafische Werkplaats is a crucial facility for visual artists and designers from South Holland. The posters could not only be seen in public spaces, but also in exhibitions at the Grafische Werkplaats and the Haagse Kunstkring. Autonomous works of the exhibitors were presented alongside their posters to emphasise the relationship between applied and free work. With these manifestations and exhibitions, the artists succeeded in convincing the municipality. The Grafische Werkplaats continued!

Design Museum Dedel is showing a selection of these posters, which have played such an important role in the recent history of the Grafische Werkplaats. The posters demonstrate how the activist spirit and sense of community among users of the workshop has always lived on since its foundation in 1974.

With posters by Zeloot, Weitenberg, Pat Andrea, Wendy Wenders, G.J. de Rook, Ilja Walraven, Ton Martens and many others

In the anti-war exhibition of the museum Dedel, you come across the artworks made at the beginning of the twentieth century that look like prophecies of upcoming disasters. And indeed end-of-the-world theories are part of our cultural background and can be found in any folklore and ancient traditions. The fear of an uncertain and unknown future drives the human mind to explain the unexplainable. As the human body goes through the cycle of life, the universe must dissolve and reemerge as well. The Mayan version of the world-end records a vast cosmic cycle that represents a world period of some thirty-four thousand years—twelve and a half million days—and these are recorded again and again. However, with the development of weapons of mass destruction mankind doesn’t need to wait for the end of the cosmic cycle anymore. During the twentieth century, the idea of the possible end of humankind was ever present in the public space all the way through the Cold War till 1991. Great deal of fear, tension, and anger were reflected in art pieces of the era. Our museum’s anti-war poster exhibition combines works of many politically involved artists, designers, and illustrators. They strived to appeal to the kind human hearts, to the best human qualities in an attempt to stop bloodshed from happening.

february 8 2023 until the end of 2024

Ukraine. People. Courage. Posters

Posters from Ukraine, 2022 as well as from the 1920’s. This exhibition is held to support the Ukrainian people. The posters from 2022 are for sale in a limited edition with proceeds going towards the artists (10%), the museum (25%) and Ukrainian War Relief (65%).
Free entrance for those holding a Ukrainian passport or ID card.21 May benefit auction of the posters.

Also showing from 15 February until 12 November 2023, “War to War. Posters for Peace 1912-2022”