King Willem-Alexander opens the Infected! at the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden. It is about the outbreaks of infectious diseases and how they can disrupt life. The exhibition, which would actually open in April, was overtaken by current events due to the coronavirus outbreak. The museum changed course and gave Covid-19 a prominent place in the exhibition.
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With the exhibition, the museum primarily wanted to warn about “a possible infectious disease that would one day start to break out”, also referred to as ‘disease X’ by the World Health Organization (WHO). “We were now able to fully fill that in with the coronavirus,” says the museum. “Text boards explaining quarantine or group immunity no longer had to be so extensive, because people now have much more inside information.”
In a special corona room, a compilation film of recent images is shown, in which the social struggle against the coronavirus is central. You can also see photos by photographer Annabel Jeuring, who recorded the corona time in the Netherlands. A timeline with outbreaks of the plague, smallpox, malaria, AIDS, and Ebola puts the new coronavirus in perspective.
The exhibition also contains scientific objects and works of art and the museum considers how people used to deal with virus outbreaks and the insights that historical epidemics offer for the future. “You would think that people are fed up with it, but precisely because they have now experienced such an outbreak up close, they are extra interested in the subject,” says the museum.
The exhibition will run until January 9, 2022.
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