Designblog

Cyril Duval is a french artist based in Tokyo. His work is like a modern day collage sampling various other artist’s work. His pieces basically consist of nearly exact copies of excisting work. For instance he recreated some of Damiem Hurst’s type aquarium, or Bart Simpson for the Colette shop. Cyril Duval collaborates with and continues to work with some personalities, Like Sarah [from Colette], Bernhard Willhelm and Terence Koh.
He creates artwork from logos or visual identities of big international companies. Cyril Duval plays with the whole concept of marketing in different collages – for example transforming a Louis Vuitton bag into a costume. The Item/Idem project by Cyril Duval is all about that.

The lecture he gave in Amsterdam for the design week was extraordinary because he didn’t give a simple lecture of his work but transformed it into a show. After reading some articles and interviews about/with him, I discovered that Cyril Duval is an amazing artiste. His manner to think about the development of his work is very interesting. He’s very sensible about sophistication of design and marketing which are surrounding us all. He asks himself about art and how to show it in a new way to push the view on art. Still studying the past to create a new fragment of art.

interview:

T: Why did you chose to go work in Japan ?

C: In Japan it’s more easy to export world wide, because you have this sens of bring it art to life. To propage of design, because in Japan the people have the sens of community and live together. And after 6 months in Japan I took some characters of this country, a form of interiority a things very specific to Japan basicly.

T: After Freedesigndom, do you have other projects ?

C: Yes, of courses, at the moment I work on a new project – interior design for a night club (Le baron de Paris), which is now opening in Tokyo.

T: Talk to me more about “Tokion” and the idea of that magazine

C: Tokion, is a glocal magazine ( glocal is a concept which means the mix of global and local). Who the Tokyo culture is inside the world and who the world is coming back to Tokyo, that exange of information. His bleeding of culture.

T: I read on the internet that you’ve worked with Bernard Willhelm!?

C: Yes, I worked with him, I created and designed, the concept store the first one on the world of Bernard Willhelm. His it a conceptual rechearched inspired by japaness homeless house. because for me Japeness homeless house is sophisticed and also design.

Cyril Duval is a recognised artist, with a lot of imagination and he poses serious questions about art and especially design. He is invested and have a lot of projects. I think that Cyril Duval will keep surprising us and I invite you to follow him and learn more about him on the links below.

posting by Talal Al Akkad

Did you see the ExperimentaDesign posters by KesselsKramer ! How long did it take you to find out what was going on? It was only after missing all the opening events, at which a score of great designers and artists like (Cyril Duval, Anthony Dunne, Ron Arad, Ian Anderson, Graffiti Research Lab, Mark Jenkins, Rem Koolhaas, Álvaro Siza Vieira) did their presentations, that we realized that something special was going on.
ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008 opened its “Lounging Space” and Droog Event 2 “Urban Play” curated by Scott Burnham, behind the empty SMCS building, in these lost spaces “under the bridge”. “Come To My Place”, “Sunday Adventure Club” and parallel events like “Red Light Design” were all part of it.
At a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon, 6 weeks later, a small group of intimi braved the bad weather and enjoyed some inspiring presentations of an other select group of invited participants among whom, Kamiel Klaasse (NL Architects), Scott Burnham (curator Urban Play), Renny Ramakers (Droog Design) and Ji Lee (New York graphic designer).

It is all over by now. But do not worry Rietveld’s A group Foundation students did go out there to capture most of the events for you.

Voor Droog Event 2: Urban Play had architectenbureau NL Architects twee speelplaatsen ontworpen: de BoomBench en Moving Forest.
Moving Forest was een groep kleine bomen in winkelkarretjes. Eind september toen we langs de projecten van Droog Event 2 liepen waren de bomen al tussen stenen balken gezet, om ze bij elkaar te houden.
Het idee was dat voorbijgangers een karretje mee konden nemen en neer konden zetten waar ze maar wilden.
De gemeente Amsterdam vond de karretjes gevaarlijk en was bang dat ze midden op de autoweg terecht zouden komen. Helaas. Hierdoor kwam Moving Forest op mij absoluut niet geloofwaardig meer over. Het idee dat mensen hun eigen groene leefomgeving konden bepalen was ermee verdwenen en het enige wat overbleef was een dood gaand groepje bomen in ijzeren karretjes. Door de gemeente en hun ontwerpers op hun plek vastgehouden. Was het niet beter geweest ze nu weg te halen? Of het statement aan te passen?
Gelukkig had NL Architects dit zelf ook door en hebben de architecten hun project laten staan, maar achteraf de bomen verkocht voor vijf Euro per stuk. Zo voldeed het toch aan hun concept: de koper kon zelf de plaats van het groen bepalen!

Toen ik de bomen voor het eerst zag deden ze me vooral denken aan de consumenten-maatschappij en viel het dood gaan van de bomen in de ijzeren karretjes meer op dan het beweegbare van die karretjes.
Als je geïnteresseerd bent in mensen die zelf bepalen waar het groen is kijk dan vooral een keer naar de film Harold and Maude. Het is een detail, maar Maude besluit ergens in de film om een boom uit de grond te halen midden op straat, om hem mee te nemen.

De BoomBench van NL Arhitects was sowieso een geslaagd ontwerp. Hij wordt (haast) niet aangetast door vandalisme door het respect dat de meeste bezoekers er voor hebben. Hij veroorzaakt geen overlast en de enige klacht die binnen is gekomen is geloof ik dat hij niet harder kan! Hij heeft heel wat mensen geïnspireerd tot het maken van filmpjes. Check Youtube!

posting by Josje Kerkhoven

I visited ‘Sculpt Me Point’ which is made by Marti Guixe. He is from Spain and living and working in Barcelona and Berlin. He is an interior designer and food artist mainly, and he has made many interesting products. I like some of his product design things very much (plant me pets, and some art tape things).

In this year he participated in ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008 presents Droog Event 2: Urban Play. Sculpt Me Point is his project and it is kind of public art. It was on the empty space in front of Lloyd Hotel. The big cube consists of many white big bricks with attached hammers and chisels each side allowing people to sculpt the stone. A circular bench is for protecting the area. When I visit there the first time, the stone was clean except 2, 3 sculptures looks like be sculpted by the artist and some names from couples. Children and babies mostly like that as a play ground with canvas. I also could see couples who sculpt their names. 2 days before Urban Play finishes, I visited there again to check differences from beginning. Each corner was cut and much more words sculpted by people. I also wanted to sculpt something so I sculpt my face on that. Many people asked me that am I an artist while I made it and some children watched me for some minutes. It was my first experience to do something on the other artist’s work in public place and it was very funny and exciting.

posting by Inup Park

“Beeldtaal, een design of logo probeert je altijd wat te vertellen” – Jeroen Bruijn, Designer van Design bureau Thonik
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Jeroen Bruijn heeft het logo en de tentoonstelling voor het droog event 2 URBAN PLAY  ontworpen. Het logo verwijst naar straten en zebrapaden wat wel duidelijk is. Het verwijst naar straten omdat de tentoonstelling ging over straat interventie, kunst in steden op straat.
Het leuke van de logo is dat het vrij kenmerkend is voor de stijl van Thonik en voornamelijk Jeroen de Bruijn. Een stijl die gemakkelijk te herkennen is (er word veel met strepen gewerkt, herhaling en zware letters) en uitnodigt om ernaar te blijven kijken. *

De tentoonstelling is opgebouwd uit dozen met het logo erop in het midden van de zaal, met het idee van een stad. Tussen die dozen waren kleine tv’s geplaatst met daarop video’s van de artiest en een poster met informatie ernaast. De bedoeling was dat je ging zoeken naar de kunst in “de stad”. De keuze voor kartonnen dozen heeft hij gemaakt met het idee dat karton net als de kunst op vaak makkelijk beïnvloedbaar is door zijn omstandigheden. (Jeroen Bruijn zei zelf dat hij naderhand gemerkt heeft dat de tentoonstelling een vochtige ruimte is en dat dit ook effect had op het karton.)

Ik vond de tentoonstelling er leuk uitzien en opgezet, alleen voor mij was de bedoeling niet helemaal duidelijk. Ik vond het best verwarrend om daar tussen die dozen te staan en ik kwam pas later in het gesprek erachter dat het een stad moest zijn. Ik vind het niet erg dat ik er geen stad in kon vinden, maar wat me wel wat dwars zat is dat ik me nogal verloren voelde tussen die dozen en naar mijn opzicht het geheel chaotisch overkwam.
Maar het kan ook zijn dat hij het juist zó bedoeld had, en dat het gevoel van verlorenheid en juist de chaos die daarbij aansluit overeenkomt met de siuatie waarin je de kunst op straat normaal  aan zou treffen.

posting by Annelot Meines

The Sunday Adventure Club wants to change cities by asking people to create their own environment. Because the environment should be a place where citizens can determine their own rules and explore their freedom, a playful environment, in which people revolt against the regulatory city. A dog-playground, a cooking workshop or a beauty farm, how promising is the initiative of the Sunday Adventure Club?

The SAC compare themselves with the Situationist. This movement started in 1957 and fueled the student demonstrations in Paris 1968. The situationists believe that every generation should rebel against the previous generation. As a consequence there will never be a ruling authority. The SAC though, doesn’t rebel against the ruling order in the city, they avoid the confrontation by choosing those places that are abandoned. Therefore we can hardly speak of a relevant comparison in this context.

Another difference between the situationists and the SAC is the use of media. Internet and GPS are used to create communities and find like-minded. These media are also used as toys, for instance to let the GPS track your steps and create figures in the city. This first of all only strains the feeling of freedom in my opinion, when anyone can track you anywhere. And second are these media now used to play instead of spreading a message.

An initiative funded by the city authorities can of course never rebel against them. The SAC therefore turns out as a real product of our time. Where everything has to be fun and people are satisfied with that, there is no real urge to change the dynamics of the urban environment. It’s enough to make a sunday in the city a little bit more ‘fun’.

introduction to Situationists with more interesting links and work of the Situationists International, for situastionists on YouTube see more in posting: (“disobeying for the sake of disobedience”))

posting Elke Baggen

Windowzoo, a worldwide community art project found by the Swiss software engineer Till Bay, gathers inspiration from street art. It is based on the concept of placing silhouettes of birds (or other animals) made of black folio on windows and transparent walls of public buildings. The silhouettes often mingle with the design of the building and thus (according to the authors) create a (as opposed to street art) non-intrusive form of interaction with the environment.

Everyone can participate in the project in two simple steps:

1. place (free) a bird which plays with the context of the surroundings and

2. post a photograph of the creation to the windowzoo’s Flickr group.

Videos can be found on wdztube and illdesign, YouTube channels. Windowzoo’s participation in Rotterdan ART is also shown there.

if you want to read more, read this information and my interview with Till Bay

posting Alex Agelov

Stefan Sagmeister is a graphic designer who lives and works in New York.You might know him from his CD cover designs for the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed and many more.

In Experimentadesign he showed us a quote from an old diary of his, saying; ’obsessions make my life worse and my work better’. Spelling out these words he used 250.000 Eurocent coins. He left it completely open for the public to do with the work whatever they wanted; take the coins and start using it as money; take some and create a new image, turn them around, destroy it or just look at it.

It’s ironic to use money as a kind of ink for this line and put it on the street like that. He’s playing with the value of the money. As soon as you realize that the work is made out of money, there is a desire to have it. But then, he’s talking about obsessions. So it feels like a stupid act to take the money and start using it for your own pocket. Beside that, you really need to carry a lot of those heavy 1(!!) Eurocent coins to have a high number. It would be a real torture to take it. You must be really obsessed almost… This reminds me of the work of Damian Hirst (For the Love of God). Wich you can now be seen in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. He is playing with the value of art by making the money aspect in art so dominant, marketing. The big difference is though, that Hirst is putting it in a commercial context himself, provoking a discussion and then, he is the one who is leading it. And in Sagmeisters case, it just happened. He didn’t had a hand in it, while Hirst is blowing everything up and it becomes a hype in a way.

The night after the opening of Experimentadesign two people started to put the coins in bags. The police were called and they decided that they had to secure the work so they took it to the police department. How Dutch is that? Due to a lack of interests by the authorities in events like this, you’ll get this kind of results. They’ll fund you to make things possible, and end up taking the artwork after a few hours to protect it. How much room is there left for interventions like these in our super save and over regulated society? Whose space is this anyway?

But still, it’s an unexpected interaction, and that is what the artwork tried to provoke. Therefore, I must say, I love it.

posting and police logo by Doris Boerman

Matali Crasset’s work is striking in two ways: it is both very gentle in its approach, and very consequent in its execution and its striving to reach a futuristic, harmonious living environment. She claims that her aim is not to create an object ( ‘the object isn’t the central focus of the creative process…’ ) but more to investigate situations that can be molded to fit the individual needs and preferences of the end-consumers.

Her imagination often takes her to areas that explore the influence of light, everyday rituals, habits and objects. She frequently works for (and with) children, which is relevant to her interest in throwing off all the preconceptions we as a society have of our living space in order to create new ways of playing with how we deal with these basic human needs.
In a playful way she incorporates natural shapes into her environments as well, giving us such experiments as an instant hanging garden space, tree-hangers and root furniture.
However, despite distinctly considering natural forms, her designs such as those resembling glass or plastic organic forms all remain strangely clinically separated from their natural environment. Also, since most of her work is focused on our living experience inside houses, it would be interesting to see what she comes up with about the possibilities of living in an interplay with the outside world. Instead of creating a bubble full of fake organic shapes for us to live in, she could also try to merge the real organic outside with indoor living to achieve a balance of both (Namba Parks Osaka)

posting by Jane Mumford

Ji Lee (pleaseenjoy.com) is a Korean born New York based designer and initiator of urban interventions. He grew up in Sao Paolo and later moved to New York where he studied at Parsons school of Design. He is now working as creative director for Google, a freelance designer and a design teacher at Parsons school of design. Some of his most well known works are “the Univers Revolved”(universrevolved.com), “Abstractor”(abstractor.tv) and “the Bubble Project”. (thebubbleproject.com)

Ji lee´s contribution to Experimenta design is “the bubble project”(ABC World News). It is a project that he’s been working on since 2002. He initiated it in New York where he printed 50.000 talk-bubble stickers and placed out on top of commercial ads allover New York City, leaving it open for people of the city to fill in their own words. The project has continued to grow ever since.
The idea of the bubbles originally comes from the Situationists (Situationist International), a small assembly of artists and politicians active in the early 60´s. Their main intention was to create disobeying people. In 1968 they made bubbles and stacked them on commercials. They didn’t like the way big companies took advantage of creative people to sell their products so they turned it around and used these commercial images to support their own messages.

Ji Lee is questioning the way our cities are overrun with commercials and our limited possibility to express ourselves in the urban space. Many of the graffiti tags we see on the streets are also a reaction on this but most of the tags we see in the cities are also commercials for artists and crews and the conversations going on in the graffiti world are most of the time only readable for the initiated. By using the Situationists means and turning the commercials into public conversations he encourages all people to communicate their own thoughts without writing anything himself. He is basically giving the word to the people of the city.

posting by Chandra Sen

Come to My Place is an exhibition of eight designers from different countries of the world in the Westerhuis Gallery in the Westerstraat. They were given an empty space and were asked to make this space feel like a home. Creating this space, they were only allowed to use materials from local shops and building markets, and on the other hand using their self-designed furniture.
The main essence of this exhibition is the way in which people try to define their individuality, by using both international designs and designs from shops around the corner.

The Come to My Place exhibition starts with a room designed by Miguel Vieira Baptista from Lissabon. He wanted to create a kitchen, because the kitchen is a place that is characterized by the city or location in which it is used. He sends wine to the exhibition space every week so people can have a drink and feel home. A striking design in this space are the black chairs with shadows of three of its poles attached to it on the floor.

After that you can have a look in the space of Ovo from Sao Paulo
In this exhibition you expect quite stereotype rooms, but the people from Ovo tried to avoid this by making a symbolic place that they recognize as theirs through unfamiliarity like using the green and black chairs.
Today it’s not the tradition and custom, but the designers who guide us in expressing who we are.

These two were the rooms with the best designs. As you can see they were not typical Portugese or Brazillian, but these days there is a sheer of limitless supply of designed objects for the interior and the local traditions have got a diminishing influence on the individuals.

posting by Poul Brouwer

During ExperimentaDesign 2008, 7 jewelry designer were given a chance to work and live in the Red Light District. The project was called “Red Light Design”. RedLightDesigner Ted Noten designed red rings and sold them in the imfamous Red Light District in Amsterdam City. What caught my eye, the first time I saw Ted Noten’s display, was the way he presented his work. The rings were sold in a 24-hour vending-machine placed in a window where a former ‘working woman’ used to conduct her business.

“Be nice to a girl, buy her a ring” was his motto.

Basically he wants to add a little romance to the surrounding; the prostitutes, the men and woman that visit the area. Interesting in the way Ted presented his work is the interaction that takes place between the tourist and other people that pass this display; curiousity is aroused in almost everyone that walks by. But I started to wonder and question the work; does this designers work fullfill its purpose? Does the rings reach their intended destination? And do romance and prostitution mix? What would happen if we asked a prostitute her opinion? What would she think? So I asked a ‘lady of the night’, right around the corner to find out what she had to say.

posting by Dana Jansen

Three events that sound alike. This was the first thing that came to my mind as I entered the COME TO MY PLACE exhibition at the Westerhuis gallery.

Come to my place. In short; a project involving 8 designers / groups from different parts of the world. They were asked to create a sense of home in small living spaces, using their designs and products from their own country. Each participant had a space to fill.

The idea behind Come to my Place is todays global culture; how does it affect the insides of our homes? Local traditions are not a big influence anymore. International designers give us the supplys we need to give our home a “personal” touch these days. However there are still small details in houses around the world from which you can tell where you are… I think the designers wanted to fill these spaces with a balance between local and global designs.

I was attracted by the installation in the room of Miguel Vieira Baptista titled; ‘my kitchen in amsterdam for 45 days’.
Coming from Portugal, his theme was a kitchen filled with “traditional Portugese tablewear” and modern designs. His concept was that visitors of the gallery could actually sit down and use the kitchen there, which i think is not a very realistic idea in a gallery. About the design itself, I found out that the objects i liked the most were not his work but just objects selected by him, like the black stools and the tiles by Viuva Lamego (see photos). The “3d cube tiles” are a original, simple and useable product that I would like to have in my kitchen. Its funny that a normal thing as kitchen tiles can become modern by just a small change.

posting by Boaz Mout.                                      for more photo’s of the event

I went to “Swing Lantern”

When I went first time with my friend, there was nobody. We began to play Swing Lantern (that handles were high for me, but I managed). We had finished it, we were seeing it. Then, two persons came to Swing Lantern, they began to play it. I took a photograph. One of them spoke to us “If you want, I take a photograph for you playing Swing Lantern”. We were taken photograph. There was wide place, it was easy for us to find it. It was high, and colorful.
When I went there second time, a family played it. They had three little children, they changed to play for one child. In ordinary designers week (it was held in Tokyo every year), we couldn’t play with product. It was problem. But in this project, we can play, and we can make a memory with the products. It is a good experience and important thing.

I thought about “swing” and “lantern”. It reminded me of Japanese hu-rin. It is a bell which make sounds when the wind blows. Japanese hu-rin made of glass. We use it outside during summer. It was very small, the size is about 7cm. When we listen to the hu-rin’s sound, we feel cool and happy. During summer night, I open the window, while I listen to the hu-rin’s sound, I use to read books. “Swing Lantern” make us experience and remember. I’d like to make things like swing lantern. I’d like to make people have memory through my art project.

Similar project (Lantern), Japanese Windbells (Hu-rin)

posting by Juri Suzuki

Nowadays it seems we don’t have anything to hide anymore; we all happily share our personal info on Facebook, MySpace and Hyves. You hardly realize that the government is watching your every ‘digital’ move; internet and email, through bank cards, through your cellphone, even your bonus card at the Albert Heijn supermarket is being traced.

With that in mind, 12 students from the design department of the Sandberg Institute came up with the idea of using an ancient way of communicating; via Pigeon Post. For several months the students trained their very own group of pigeons in order for them to exchange messages about their privacy project. Sara Kolster, one of the students, says that the group has had the idea of doing something with the privacy issue for some time. But when the VPRO (a dutch broadcasting organization) and Holland Doc approached them to participate in their Privacy Project, they really started brainstorming. ‘Almost everything can be traced, even letters. In the 1st and 2nd World War, pigeon post was actually used quite a lot; it is untraceable and pigeons are everywhere’. The project continued during ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008 on the roof of the Post-CS building, where the pigeon house was used at night as a projection screen for showing films and documentaries on privacy issues.

Because of the fact that I didn’t get to see the event on the Post-CS Building, I decided to experience the idea of ‘Hiding from the government’ for myself. One week; my phone, internet, cards and bank cards in exchange for mail, as in letters. On a Sunday, at twelve AM I switched off my phone; peace and quiet. Monday I wrote three letters, if I want to meet friends I’d have to do that a few days in advance. I found out hand writing a letter takes a lot of time, as well as looking for my brother whom I was going to meet, but where and when exactly was that?

Tuesday I received my first answer by mail and Wednesday only got more exciting when I found three letters in my mailbox! But time is suddenly crucial if you want to get your answer out on time, since the postbox deadline is six o’clock. Thursday three letters again, including one of my grandfather, who had post pigeons back in 1936; ‘They used to shit all over the next-door-neighbor’s laundry and another man who had post pigeons too, used to throw rocks at my beautiful birds. People who have post pigeons are maniacs!’

Friday; a friend from another city just stopped by my house to drop off her letter she meant to send. We couldn’t hang out because I was just leaving to go to her city, where I got lost and accidently ended up at her address, where I’d never been but knew from the letter I sent her. What are the odds. Saturday, the last day of my experiment; I had already been tempted at the library and my working place to check my e-mail, but I pulled through and had been invisible for one week!

The Sandberg students definitely made their statement, even though the event was more of a metaphor, It makes you think and even want to experience the experiment for yourself. But after all, it is an event and not a way to live. It is understandable that in busy times we don’t mind sacrificing a little privacy in order to speed things up. That’s why afterwards the students of the Sandberg Institute don’t really feel the urge to keep using this dated method of communicating as long as their personal data whilst using technology is not being abused.

The students are still busy editing a documentary which will be shown on the Holland Doc website and in the meantime the retired pigeons are returned to the Dutch Pigeon Post Organization.

posting by Jesse Muller

Ian Anderson, who’s the founder of the Designers Republic, was invited to come and talk for the Amsterdam Conferences at Experimenta Design, Amsterdam.
TDR is known for its anti-establishment aesthetics, while Ian Anderson’s still embracing the consumerism.
As you problably know, TDR does a lot of commercial work for huge brands such as Coca-Cola, Activision Inc and Warp Recordings. But through Ian Andersons art exhibitions, he’s “commenting” on the consumerism and the fact that the whole world is centered around a buy/consume mentality, which of course can be understood as a provocative comment against the consumerism. As he explains: “It’s more an observation and a desire to inspire people to think for themselves rather than a provocation.”
His interest in the consumerism issue, is not about getting people to think that they need things they never knew they wanted. It’s about the control. Like in one of his exhibitions called “Customized Terror”, there was a poster with the word “flesh”. This was not saying that you shouldn’t eat meat. The purpose of the message was to get people to be aware of the ramifications of their actions.

So he’s in some way stepping out of the whole discussion of right or wrong, and has placed himself as some kind of neutral player in the whole discussion concerning the consumerism issue. But of course there will always be different opinions and different ways of looking at his role he has put himself in. Although I think his role in this issue will always be understood, as some kind of contradiction to itself. The Designers Republic
posting by Daniel Norregaard

Volgens de Oude Grieken kan de mens alleen in een polis, een stad, een volwaardig leven leiden en zijn streven naar het goede leven verwezenlijken. En nu, eeuwen later, zijn we op het punt gekomen waarbij meer dan de helft van de wereldbevolking in de stad woont. Zijn al deze (nieuwe) stadsbewoners nu beter af? In een context van een veelheid aan keuzemogelijkheden die het aanbiedt en de constante risico’s die op de loer liggen proberen de inwoners zich de stad eigen te maken. Het is hun natuurlijke omgeving geworden, een landschap dat we zelf gecreëerd hebben en continu aan het vormgeven zijn. Dat is het onderwerp van Experimentadesign 2008.

Het is zondagmiddag en ik kom met het pontje aan in Amsterdam Noord. Ik ben op zoek naar Hotel Experimenta van Jan Konings. Voor een huis met een grote tuin met een hoog hek eromheen wappert een experimentadesign vlag. Als je goed kijkt zie je een klein lichtblauw gebouw in de tuin staan. Door de tuin loop ik naar het hotel. Ik voel me er ongemakkelijk bij, dit is iemands private ruimte. Het hotel is leeg. Ik kijk door de ramen, om te ontdekken dat er niet veel meer staat dan een bed. En dat heeft een reden. De hotelgasten moeten de faciliteiten die een ‘normaal’ hotel aanbiedt, zelf zoeken in de omgeving. Bij het café-restaurant om de hoek, de wasserette een paar straten verderop, en niet te vergeten, bij de inwoners van dit stukje stad.

In een interview met Jan Konings vertelde hij me dat hij al langer bezig is met hotels. Aanleiding is de Nederlandse wetgeving, het is verboden om in de openbare ruimte te slapen. Als kunstenaar kan hij mensen de mogelijkheid geven om op bijzondere openbare plaatsen te overnachten. Een van de projecten is Hotel Experimenta. Om een goed leven te leiden in de stad maakt de stedeling keuzes. In een stad leven betekent in delen van de stad leven. Ieder creëert zijn eigen stad. Net als de stedelingen die zich de stad eigen maken, creëren de gasten een eigen omgeving voor zichzelf rondom het hotel.

Ik woon in Amsterdam, maar in dit stuk kom ik nooit. Als ik naar de pont loop, terug naar ‘mijn’ stad, passeer ik de boombench van NLarchitects, het is ook onderdeel van experimentadesign. Een groep jongens met scooters speelt muziek af op de muziekinstallatie in de bank. Een heel ander gezicht dan het verborgen, nu verlaten hotel. De boombench is heel direct, makkelijk te begrijpen en toegankelijk. Hotel Experimenta is veel minder toegankelijk, het vraagt iets terug. Het vraagt om na te denken over de verschillende lagen van het werk. Het hotel staat er, maar het is aan de bezoeker om het in te vullen, ‘er iets van de maken’. Dit geeft de bezoeker vele mogelijkheden. De stedelingen, de hotelgasten en de bezoekers hebben een ding gemeen: ze worden uitgedaagd om zich de stad, de omgeving of het werk eigen te maken.

Op onderstaande link is een filmpje te zien dat ik tijdens mijn bezoek aan Hotel Experimenta gemaakt heb:

posting by Susan Kooi