Born of necessity in a world trying to cope with Covid-19, drive-through museum exhibitions could be coming to China in the new year. “We are working towards licensing a travelling version of our drive-through exhibition for display in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen from as early as March,” says Sjarel Ex, director of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (MBVB), in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The exhibition he’s referring to – the Boijmans Ahoy Drive-Thru Museum – was organised at short notice, and attracted 22,000 visitors, all safely isolated in their own electric vehicle, over the course of three weeks in August. Topically themed – probing humankind’s relationship with nature – the sell-out show was a collaboration between the museum and the Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the convention centre, which includes six exhibition halls and the 16,000-capacity Ahoy Arena. A busy schedule of trade shows, sporting events and concerts has been cancelled. Normally, such events would generate annual revenue in the region of €45 million (US$53 million) but income slumped to zero after March. Consequently, 40 per cent of the centre staff have been laid off. The arena was planning to host the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in May. That event alone was expected to attract 28,000 visitors and 1,500 journalists to Rotterdam. Instead of playing host to cheesy singers trying to avoid scoring “nul points”, though, a part of Rotterdam Ahoy was converted into a 128-bed temporary hospital for Covid-19 patients. “This kind of period triggers your senses. You have to think of new initiatives,” says marketing and communications manager Susanne Blaas, of the Rotterdam Ahoy’s openness to fresh ideas to plug the shortfall in visitors, and thus revenue. Therefore, when the MBVB management, prompted by a newspaper report about the Ahoy’s plight, came calling with a suggestion, they were welcomed. Online art exhibition captures pandemic scenes in Hong Kong Based at Rotterdam’s Museumpark, MBVB has a world-class collection of more than 150,000 objects. They range from artworks by old masters, such as Hieronymus Bosch and Rembrandt van Rijn, to contemporary pieces and applied art, including furniture designed by Gerrit Rietveld. The institution closed its doors for refurbishment on May 26, 2019, at the end of a Bauhaus-themed exhibition, and is not expected to reopen until 2026. Before then, the entire collection will be put on display in the world’s first publicly accessible art storage depot, but that’s not scheduled to open until September 2021. In the meantime, the museum has been collaborating with other institutions to show its artworks. From June to September, for example, Amsterdam’s Cobra Museum of Modern Art exhibited surrealist works from the MBVB collection. As appropriate to the era of social distancing as it was, the drive-through idea suggested to the Rotterdam Ahoy was not entirely new. MBVB considered hosting a drive-through exhibition in 2008, with works by Claude Monet on display. Conceptual artist Ted Noten’s idea was shelved, though, because of concerns over the detrimental effects of vehicle exhaust. When the MBVB suggested a resurrection of the idea to the Rotterdam Ahoy management, it came as a surprise. “They thought we were there to offer a public sculpture for their main square,” says Ex. After asking for use of the conference centre’s largest hall, five MBVB representatives drove to the 10,000 square metre space, each in their own car. “We asked them to darken the room space,” says Ex. “We lit the hall with our headlights. We started to drive in this dark environment; the size of two soccer fields. It was amazing. Even doing nothing in the dark was a great experience.” Seven weeks later, on September 1, the Boijmans Ahoy Drive-Thru Museum opened. The conference centre’s expertise in rapidly preparing halls for events had proved invaluable. BMW supplied 33 electric cars, though owners of electric and hybrid vehicles could bring their own. There was no marked circuit around the exhibition’s 57 artworks. LCD screens measuring 14 metres across and eight metres tall were used to show films by Vita Acconci, Trenton Doyle Hancock and Bruce Nauman. A row of 20 sculptures included works by Auguste Rodin and Hendrik Chabot, but most artworks were suspended, leaving the floor open so the vehicles could be more easily manoeuvred. A survey of attendees resulted in overwhelmingly positive feedback, revealing that 30 per cent had never previously been to a museum show. “It was the right plan, in the right spot, in the right city and the right period of the year,” says Ex. “We feel we discovered a new form that can be surprisingly strong. You could think about visual festivals in the future in which this technique is not for supporting the musicians but the visual part is leading the show. Maybe soundscapes could support the visuals.” The Berliner Festspiele, which hosts cultural events in the German capital, is considering staging a version of the drive-through exhibition and, although discussions with Chinese venues are still at an early stage, don’t be surprised if a collection of treasures from Rotterdam becomes available to Chinese motorists some time in 2021.