Restoring Mathilde ter Heijne: Life Inside Storage

In the 1990s, Ter Heijne cycled through Berlin to collect cardboard boxes from various supermarkets. She stacked them into an installation and transformed some of the boxes into dioramas...

The educational exhibition Inside Out starts from the safe inner world of a child and ends in the vast outer world of a teenager or adult. Together, the artworks tell a story about how we, as humans, shape our identity with things we like, as well as where these items come from and the impact their origin has on the world. One work that could not be missing in this narrative is Life Inside Storage (1998) by Mathilde ter Heijne. Specifically for Inside Out, this installation was restored at the request of the Bonnefanten by SRAL – The Conservation Institute.

In the 1990s, Ter Heijne cycled through Berlin to collect cardboard boxes from various supermarkets. She stacked them into an installation and transformed some of the boxes into dioramas. The inscriptions on the packages reveal the diverse origins of the products they contained, including coconut milk, noodles, pasta, bapao wheat flour, and printer ink. The dioramas contain collages from magazines and newspapers, depicting refugees or people in a war situation. The artist aims to address the impact of global consumption on local communities. Unlike goods that easily travel around the world, people cannot always move freely across borders.

Life Inside Storage entered the Bonnefanten through the collection of Jo and Marlies Eyck. A significant portion of this private collection was acquired in 2012 with the support of the Province of Limburg. Ter Heijne's installation was last displayed in a collection presentation in 2012-2013. More than ten years later, the work needed restoration so it could be exhibited safely again. The restoration process included an artist interview with Ter Heijne, discussing the concept of the work and the possibilities for restoring the installation. The boxes were reinforced and dusted, the lenses in the dioramas were resecured, and, most importantly, the incandescent bulbs, which generated too much heat for the boxes, were replaced with LED lighting. The installation is now ready for the future.

Header: Mathilde ter Heijne, Life inside storage, 1988, mixed technique, various dimensions, Collection Bonnefanten. Acquired in 2012, with the support of the province of Limburg, from the collection Eyck, inv. nr. 1005631. Photographer: Ivory van Appeven and Mathilde ter Heijne.