Hope Springs Eternal
11 September 2026 to 28 February 2027
From 11 September, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave presents a new artwork by renowned artist Sonja Bäumel.
The artwork
Developed especially for the museum, the work explores how stem cell research enables scientists to influence, direct, and transform living cells through science and technology.
Why is stem cell research so important? And what might it mean for us, now and in the future? For this commission, Bäumel immerses herself in the world of stem cell research. She collaborates with stem cell scientists and visits laboratories at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Her work reveals the connections between science, the human body, and imagination, while making complex biomedical topics accessible and tangible for a broad audience.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are remarkable cells that can both renew themselves and develop into different types of specialised cells in the body, such as skin, muscle, or nerve cells. They play a vital role in growth, repair, and the maintenance of tissues. Scientists are investigating how stem cells could contribute to new treatments for diseases and physical injuries. At the same time, these developments raise important questions about the future of medicine, the limits of the human body, and the possibilities of influencing and improving life itself.
About the artist
Sonja Bäumel is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Vienna and Amsterdam. Her work operates at the intersection of art, science, and the human body. She explores the relationship between bodies and their environments, with a particular focus on often invisible forms of life, such as microorganisms.
Bäumel collaborates internationally with researchers in biomedicine and microbiology and has exhibited her work at institutions including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Ars Electronica Center (Linz), and Anthology Film Archives (New York). Alongside her artistic practice, she is active as a researcher and educator, including at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and as a guest tutor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
The project: Hope Eternal Springs
The artwork is part of the international research and public engagement project Hope Springs Eternal. Through this collaboration, museums around the world are developing exhibitions on stem cell research through dialogue between artists, scientists, and curators. Project partners include Medical Museion (Copenhagen), Science Gallery Melbourne, and the Museum of Science Boston. The exhibitions will be presented throughout 2026.
This exhibition is curated by Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and was developed in collaboration with Sonja Bäumel and researchers from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). reNEW is an international consortium based at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the Melbourne Children's Research Institute in Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
This exhibition forms part of the international project Hope Springs Eternal, embedded within reNEW’s social research programme PREPARE. It is presented alongside locally curated exhibitions at Science Gallery Melbourne and Medical Museion in Copenhagen.
