Update, 2008

In 1931, a monument was unveiled in Park Sonsbeek in honor of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928). Lorentz, born in Arnhem, is one of the greatest Dutch scientists and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902. The monument was more than just a tribute: alongside his name, it also bore the names of six physicists who inspired Lorentz or were influenced by him, forming the seed of a family tree of modern physics.

For Sonsbeek 2008, the artist Hans van Houwelingen used this monument as a starting point. In collaboration with a team of physicists from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he expanded the family tree to include no fewer than 142 names of scientists who further developed Lorentz’s ideas. During the three months of the exhibition, a new name was engraved in the monument every day, so that the work literally grew over time.

Van Houwelingen (1957) lives and works in Amsterdam and is known for his interventions in public space. His oeuvre consists of monuments, installations, and projects in which art is consistently connected with ideology, politics, and society. In addition to his practice as an artist, he has been active for more than twenty years as a teacher at art academies and institutions throughout the Netherlands.