Holland has the largest ever exhibition on Mata Hari

It opened last October 14, but runs until next April 2, the exhibition Mata Hari. De Mythe en het meisje (“Mata Hari: The Woman and the Myth”), the flagship event of the European Capital of Culture 2018 programming, a title this year awarded to the city of Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland (as well as Malta’s capital, Valletta). Held at the Fries Museum (the Museum of Friesland), the exhibition aims to tell the public, for the first time so comprehensively and exactly 100 years after her passing, about the life of Leeuwarden’s most illustrious citizen, namely Mata Hari, nickname for Margaretha Zelle (Leeuwarden, 1876 - Vincennes, 1917), the celebrated dancer convicted of espionage during World War I. The exhibition displays objects that belonged to her, costumes, photographs, notebooks, letters and documents that tell the whole story of her story, which was capable of inspiring countless films and novels.

Famous for her oriental dances, in the course of which she offered her naked body to the public, Mata Hari traveled extensively throughout Europe, and it was her travels, during which she met several powerful men, high officials and generally influential figures, that made her suspect to the French government (since 1903, in fact, she had been residing in Paris): in 1917, accused by the French of espionage on behalf of Germany during World War I, she was sentenced to death. The double game she was conducting on the one hand in favor of the French and on the other in favor of the Germans was fatal to her: it was a German officer, noticing her attitude, who denounced her to French counterintelligence. Mata Hari confessed her activities, and during the brief trial that followed, she was given the death penalty by firing squad, which was carried out on October 15, 1917.

Soon after her disappearance, her story assumed mythical proportions and her life became the subject of books and films, where she was played by such divas as Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen, Marlene Dietrich, Jeanne Moreau, and Sylvia Kristel. Today Mata Hari has become something of a femme fatale icon, a style icon, an international sex symbol, although few people know that she was a girl from Leeuwarden itself. The review aims to provide a comprehensive Mata Hari overview, asking, as explained in the presentation, some questions such as, “how did the daughter of a hatter from Leeuwarden manage to become an international myth? Why did her marriage fail and how was her fate sealed in the Dutch East Indies? What role did motherhood play in her life? Was a dreamer a spy, and if she was a spy, was she a spy for the Germans, for the French, or for both?” The answers help form the largest exhibition on Mata Hari ever organized.

Mata Hari. De Mythe en het meisje is open daily (except Monday, closing day) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets (which also include visit to the Fries Museum): full 16 euros, reduced group 13.50, family ticket (two adults and three children up to 17 years old) 38.50 euros, reduced for children and young people from 6 to 17 years old 6.50 euros, reduced for students, teachers, Culture Card, CJP and ISIC 9.50 euros, Museumkaart holders 3 euros, free for Friends of the Fries Museum, children up to 3 years old, ICOM members, Fries Genootschap, Rembrandt Society, BankGiro Loterij VIP-KAART, accompanying disabled people. Also free for school groups (cost of educational materials and guide is 4 euros each). Possibility to purchase a cumulative ticket to also visit the National Museum of Ceramics Princessehof for 20 euros. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Province of Friesland, Aegon, BankGiro Loterij, Rabobank, Vrienden van het Fries Museum (Friends of the Fries Museum), VSBfonds, Stichting Het Nieuwe Stads Weeshuis, Fonds Bolsward Dronrijp 1993, Stichting Siebolt Foundation, Stichting Juckema-Sideriusfonds, and Boelstra Olivier Stichting. For information visit the exhibition site on the Fries Museum website, or the Dutch Tourist Board website.

Holland has the largest ever exhibition on Mata Hari

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