Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has turned its south facade into a canvas for Steve McQueen’s latest work, Occupied City.
The film, shown in its full 34-hour version, began on 12 September and will continue until 25 January 2026, transforming one of Europe’s best-known museums into a prolonged act of remembrance. The projection outside is silent, while a version with voiceover and sound plays in the auditorium during opening hours.
The project presents two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of Amsterdam’s occupation during the Second World War, and a vivid record of the city during the Covid pandemic. Shot between 2020 and 2023, it shows residents celebrating, commemorating and protesting, from the outskirts to the centre, while revealing the invisible scars of wartime persecution.
“This is a mirror image of Amsterdam: it mirrors who we are today,” McQueen said at the launch. He added: “The work invites reflection on themes such as occupation, persecution and freedom… Living in Amsterdam feels like living with ghosts. There are always two or three parallel narratives unfolding at once. The past is always present.”
The film covers more than 2,000 addresses, each linked to a wartime story, based on historian and filmmaker Bianca Stigter’s Atlas of an Occupied City. During the occupation, three-quarters of the Dutch Jewish population were murdered, along with Roma, Sinti and other dissenters. By pinning those histories to specific streets and facades, the work highlights the magnitude of what unfolded in ordinary places.
Taco Dibbits, general director of the Rijksmuseum, said: “Collaborating with Steve McQueen has long been a cherished wish. In Occupied City, McQueen powerfully interweaves the invisible scars of the Second World War with the contemporary rhythm of Amsterdam. As a Brit living in Amsterdam, he allows us to see our own present and past through different eyes.”
A shorter version of the film, lasting just over four hours, premiered at Cannes in 2023. The Rijksmuseum presentation marks the first time McQueen has realised the full 34-hour version, restoring addresses and stories omitted from the theatrical release. Audiences are invited to engage in fragments or stay for longer stretches; a continuous auditorium screening of the full work is scheduled for 11–12 October.
The presentation coincides with Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary and the commemoration of 80 years of liberation. For those who stop beneath the illuminated facade, Occupied City offers more than images: it is an invitation to let time pass, to stand still with history, and to confront the ways in which it still lingers.
McQueen, 55, is best known for his 2013 feature 12 Years a Slave, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His films Hunger and Shame cemented his reputation for unflinching explorations of trauma, politics and the human body.
Alongside his film career, McQueen has built a major presence in the art world. He won the Turner Prize in 1999 and has exhibited at leading institutions including Tate Modern and MoMA. His installations often blend rigorous research with an insistence on scale and endurance, qualities that are central to Occupied City.
In recent years he has continued to straddle both cinema and contemporary art, with projects ranging from the BBC series Small Axe to gallery works that use duration and repetition to test the limits of audience attention. The Rijksmuseum commission is his most extensive public work yet, uniting his dual identities as filmmaker and visual artist.
