A hundred weddings before the Surrender of Breda

A famous painting hangs in the town hall in Breda, just outside the wedding halls. It can be seen in the background of hundreds of photos that heve been taken after the marriage ceremonies over the years.

The artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum have called on the residents of Breda to search in their albums for such photos and to submit them for a large, joint exhibition. The result of the many submissions can be seen in Nieuwe Veste during the Breda History Month.

There are many special photos among them, which go all the way back to the black-and-white images from the sixties. A great variety of families, wedding dresses and hairstyles pass by, with one thing in common: the painting as a silent witness in the background.

The canvas itself also depicts a solemn moment: the Surrender of Breda, when Justinus van Nassau hands over the keys of the city to the Spanish general Ambrogio Spinola after the Siege of Breda. This painting is a copy made by Fernando Coll in 1931, after the original by the famous painter Diego Velázquez, which hangs in the Prado museum in Madrid.

After the exhibition, the wedding photos will be included in the collection of the Breda City Archives and this art project. Send in your photo, with this painting in the background! You can do this until the end of October, via e-mail address lanzas@witterook.nl.

On October 4, artists Jaio and Van Gorkum will give a lecture in the Stedelijk Museum Breda. They will talk about their project, which they are carrying out at the invitation of Witte Rook, in which they go in search of the backgrounds of the copies of the painting by Velázquez. The lecture in the auditorium is accessible with a ticket for the museum. Monique Rakhorst, curator of old art at the museum, will be present at the lecture to provide a historical perspective on the canvas.

October 1 - November 24, 2024:
- Exhibition in the Nieuwe Veste, Molenstraat 6, 4811 GS Breda.
October 4 3:00 PM:
- Lecture by Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum in the Stedelijk Museum Breda
October 11 7:00 PM:
- Opening in the Nieuwe Veste

Diego Velázquez and the three copies of Breda

The original by Velázquez, made in 1635, is considered a key work in the canon of Spanish visual arts. The political significance of the representation is clear: it glorifies a Spanish Empire that was actually already coming to an end at that time.

But what about the copies of the canvas that can be found in Breda? Because in addition to the town hall, the Stedelijk Museum Breda also has a copy painted by Kees Maks that is even older. Where it used to hang in the café, the painting now takes a prominent place in the exhibition about the city's relationship with the Orange-Nassaus. A third copy hangs in a waiting room at Breda Castle, where the young cadets who are following their training at the Royal Military Academy look at it.

The question is whether the role these paintings play within their different environments can still be traced back to the image depicted on them? Does the environment determine the meaning of each work of art?

At the invitation of art platform Witte Rook, the artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum will be researching the role of the various copies of Las Lanzas during the year 2024. By means of video and photo documentation and staged interventions, they want to highlight the coherence between the different copies, with particular attention to the everyday situations that take place around or in front of the canvases. What common patterns can be recognized in them, and how do they distinguish themselves from each other?

Witte Rook

Witte Rook is a platform for research, experiment and reflection in the field of professional visual arts in Breda with a focus on social issues. The program is based on offering time, space and context in the form of long-term projects in which the voice of the artist is central. In 2020, Witte Rook, together with the Stedelijk Museum Breda, started a series of art projects to place the shared history of the Netherlands and Spain in a contemporary perspective. In the context of these Spain projects, the artist duo Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum started a residency project at Witte Rook under the title Las Lanzas.