“A museum isn’t just an idea: it’s a place, with a collection, which always has its own story of push-and-pull,” the artist Fiona Tan recently told Apollo magazine. “And collections are never complete. . . . I think this imperfect, unfinished aspect is really important. It opens up for me these possibilities to find stuff, to step in.” In 2024, Tan became the first artist invited to curate an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. She has used the opportunity to rethink how the museum presents the 18th and 19th centuries. In other words, Tan is adding in overlooked artworks, odd pieces from the archives, and her own films as a way to highlight what traditional displays leave out. —Elena Clavarino