Bloody tampon, selfie exhibit a museum hit

More than a thousand people have come to see the exhibition of photographs taken by Heleen van Royen in the Letterkundig museum in The Hague. Since the exhibition opened on the 16th of May, the museum announces that Van Royen's series of selfies is causing quite a stir, Omroep West reports.  The museum in The Hague is known and admired for being culturally refined, with literature and poetry from renowned masters such as Mulisch, Hermans and Reve. Entering a space and being confronted with an image of a bloody tampon or a selfie of writer Heleen van Royen with sperm in her hair is another experience altogether. It is still interesting from a literary perspective, however, tells press officer Maaike Kramer of the museum. The exhibition is drawing shocked reactions from visitors. "Especially on social media, many negative reactions have come in", Kramer says. "But then it is about people who have not yet come to have a look. If they do that, most people do really get it."

The exhibition, which is set in a separate room of the museum, shows the intimate details of Van Royen's life in more than 200 photographs, mostly self-portraits. Van Royen is a writer, whose book "The happy housewife" sold quite well. Now, Heleen van Royen is making new waves with her series of selfies. The most controversial of her photographs is one of her removing a bloody tampon from herself. Kramer is not shocked by this particular photograph, as much of the media and the visitors are, but rather about the reaction to it. "Reactions from people who agree in their horror about such a photo, but who then do conclude with harsh obscene language", Kramer says. "That is what I find to be the demise of civilization."