The World Explained
until 15 April 2012, Park Hall
How do blind people experience colour? How can telling jokes help prevent wars? What is emotion? Residents of Amsterdam answer these questions and their own theories about various subjects are added to a contemporary encyclopedia.
Mexican artist Erick Beltrán presents the art project The World Explained. Since September 2011, Beltrán and a team of young anthropologists began interviewing residents of Amsterdam, assembling the results in a contemporary encyclopedia. You can see the results of these interviews until 15 April 2012 in the Park Hall of the museum.
Add your own personal theory!
We invite you to add you own personal theory to the growing collection. For the occasion, our Park Hall will be refurnished as a live print workshop: here visitors are interviewed and selected stories are printed on three printers. In the museum you can view the 32-page volume of the latest theories.
‘Our view of the world consists to a large extent of suspicions, makeshift connections and personal interpretations.’ Erick Beltrán
Three editions: Amsterdam, São Paulo and Barcelona
Before this edition, Erick Beltrán produced volumes of The World Explained in São Paulo (2008) and Barcelona (2009). You can also see the personal theories he collected there, compare Amsterdam’s mentality with that of São Paulo and Barcelona. When the exhibition finishes, the three editions will be combined to form a single complete volume.
The World Explained was made possible with the support of: 
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