From April 24 until July 12 2026, the exhibition chop wood, carry water by Leendert Vooijce is on view at the museum café.
A performative investigation by artist Leendert Vooijce into maintenance, labor, and visibility. Over the course of 37 days, Vooijce cleans Amsterdam’s 37 green urinals, thereby elevating an everyday, often invisible act to art. This is presented as a video/installation at Museum Het Schip.
Drawing from the historical and societal significance of the urinal, the project explores how maintenance is not only functional but also carries meaning, attention, and value. Precisely because the urinal itself was designed in the style of the Amsterdam School, a direct connection is established within Museum Het Schip between this urban object, the architectural movement, and Vooijce’s artwork. In dialogue with the exhibition Unseen Talent: Women of the Amsterdam School, ‘chop wood, carry water’ focuses on what often remains out of sight: the hands and actions that help shape and sustain a city.
The recurrence of this work echoes the idea of chop wood, carry water: care as a recurring act, as something that keeps the world turning but is rarely seen. It refers to an idea from the Chinese Chan tradition, later known in the West as ‘Zen’: Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
Leendert Vooijce (1994, they/them) is an interdisciplinary visual artist, performer, and writer. The intimate experiences Vooijce shares open up universal questions about identity, proximity, care, and love. From a performative approach, work emerges in multiple disciplines simultaneously: text, video, performance, installation, poetry. These forms are not stand-alone elements, but parts of a coherent practice. It is a working method in which body, image, and language constantly move each other further toward the core of what truly wants to be said. Since 2018, Leendert has been part of the collective Female Economy.
about the location
Museum Het Schip
Museum Het Schip is one of the two locations where the Amsterdam School is discussed. The museum is located in an imaginative social housing complex in Amsterdam West, designed by architect Michel de Klerk. This Expressionist residential block was built in 1919 for the housing association Eigen Haard. Due to its shape, the building became popularly known as Het Schip (The Ship). The museum is named after the building. It is considered one of the finest examples of the Amsterdam School, a movement in architecture and decorative arts that spread throughout the Netherlands.
Read more about Museum Het Schip
