Alongside vintage photographs, the exhibition Eva Besnyö – The Liberated Camera also features the project Beyond the Nuclear Family by artist and writer Mirthe Berentsen (1984). The museum is providing a temporary home for her covered wagon, with which Berentsen is building on the covered wagon journey undertaken by the Dolle Mina’s in 1972. This national tour was photographed by Besnyö at the time.
In the 1970s, Besnyö joined the Dolle Mina movement, using her photography to bring about social change. Her commitment stemmed from her personal experience of the isolation that motherhood within the nuclear family could bring, and her conviction that this isolation could only be broken through community and collective action. That sense of urgency runs through Besnyö’s entire body of work - shaped by a rapidly changing world and the struggle to protect rights and freedoms we thought were already secured—and that same urgency resonates throughout Beyond the Nuclear Family.
Besnyö’s photographs of the Dolle Mina’s are iconic, even if, judged by the aesthetic expectations of photographic history, they may not be considered her most significant work. Yet it was precisely these photographs that Mirthe Berentsen came across years ago while doing research for her new book on family. Seeing those images, something clicked: this needs to happen again! The urgency of Besnyö’s work and activism traveled with her during her covered wagon tour through the Netherlands and the US.
While the Dolle Minas stopped along the way to raise awareness about abortion and campaign for better legislation, Beyond the Nuclear Family investigates the system that ‘crowned’ women as mothers: the nuclear family. Berentsen wonders whether it would be possible to reframe the traditional family; because, in its current form, it makes other ways of living together and providing care impossible.
Since 2025, the covered wagon has been traveling to museums and institutions across the Netherlands and the US, growing along the way. At every stop, visitors could contribute a piece of fabric from their own family history and attach it to the wagon's cover, transforming it into a living archive - a growing patchwork. From September 2026 through January 2027, the wagon will be at Fotomuseum Den Haag, inviting visitors to actively contribute and reflect on alternative forms of family, community, art-making, and mutual care.
Previous museums and institutions she has visited with the covered wagon include Museum MORE, Centraal Museum, Amsterdam Museum, and Amsterdam UMC. Starting September 5, the covered wagon will be at Fotomuseum Den Haag, extending an invitation to explore alternative forms of family, living together, making art, and caring for one another. In the spring of 2027, the wagon will continue its journey to Belgium.
Workshop
Co-create the collaborative artwork Beyond the Nuclear Family by writer and artist Mirthe Berentsen. Every month, the museum and Berentsen host a workshop. Participants bring a piece of fabric that reminds them of family. Together, we incorporate these fabrics into the wagon's cover. In doing so, we share materials, knowledge, and traditions, while actively contributing to a new narrative about family. More info & tickets