Dream Forest
Eli Content (b. 1943) has made a Dream Forest for the Children's Museum, full of funny and clownish figures. A forest alive with mysterious sounds, where people, animals and trees are so closely connected that you can hardly see where one ends and the other begins.
In creating this Dream Forest, Eli Content took inspiration from the large murals made by Marc Chagall for the Jewish Theatre in Moscow. While Chagall painted his figures directly on the wall, Content made his out of cardboard and then painted them.
In the astonishing, creative world of Eli Content, the imagination runs free, and that's exactly what's supposed to happen. In the studio, children can make dream figures out of cardboard and hang them in the Dream Forest. For those who prefer to write, there is a corner for writing down dreams to share with the forest.
Eli sees his Dream Forest as an ode to Chagall. The Children's Museum sees it as an ode to Eli Content and the art of creation.
Fragile
The Dream Forest is an installation made of cardboard and therefore fragile. Visitors are asked to take this into account. The Dream Forest is therefore not accessible to groups.
"How do things come about? Everything starts in your brain, the movement of your hand, the blinking of your eyes. I just have to take some cardboard and start. " - Eli Content, 2019
Dream Forest Events at the Children's Museum
Studio
Every day, children can make dream figures for the Dream Forest in the Children's Museum studio.
Workshops
Every Sunday from noon to 3 pm, (during Amsterdam school vacations also on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoon), children can make dream figures under the guidance of studio teachers. At those times, they can work not only with reused cardboard but also with paint.
Dream Forest concerts
The Dream Forest will host several Sunday concerts by winners of the Princess Christina Concours.
Jewish holidays
Throughout the year, there will be special workshops and events in connection with Jewish holidays.
Do you want to know more about the Droombos? Read the interview with Batya Wolff, Senior Education and Exhibition Projects Officer, about Dream Forest via this link (in Dutch).
Location
JHM Children's Museum, Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, Amsterdam
Admission: Included in museum ticket
Age group: 6–12