Gefascineerd door het contrast tussen de totstandkoming van kleinere plekken groen en grootstedelijk beleid, onderzoekt een aantal kunstenaars in samenwerking met Stroom Den Haag hoe grote (bestuurlijke en politieke) ambities zich verhouden tot het straatniveau. Op welke manieren wordt groen gedomesticeerd en hoe worden die pogingen tot orde en beheersing ook weer verstoord? Wat is de rol van zwerfafval in de gecureerde ruimtes van stedelijk groen? Wat kunnen we aan de vormgeving van perkjes groen in Den Haag aflezen over het integratiebeleid? In welke gevallen is er sprake van een hiërarchie binnen het stadsgroen?

https://staatvanverzorging.nl/

Reclaimed Neighborhood

The neighborhood you live in is a very important entity in your existence. We may have become incredibly intellectual and focused on our mind over our physicality, but in the end we’re three-dimensional creatures that inhabit space. So how do we behave (differently) in the space we live in vs spaces outside of our “territory”? How do we relate the public space we move about, especially when it’s a space we’ve known since childhood? How does territorial behavior manifest in ordinary people?

Within the genre of Japanese baseball manga, one in story in particular: Diamond no Ace caught my attention. It features a character who at a certain point becomes injured, and who hides that injury from his team in order to win the upcoming game. This character named Miyuki, is a very determined player who manages to push himself to incredible lengths while suffering from his injury. I the spectator was enthralled. And I got the strong desire to feel what that would be like, but I knew that I could never truly feel what Miyuki was feeling as long as I stayed a spectator of his story. For once I would have to actually enter the arena to experience these feelings myself directly instead of by proxy.

I got myself a baseball bat and a camera and I started swinging. I promised myself I would not stop giving my all until I literally dropped down. For an hour and ten minutes I became Miyuki Kazuya. I showed tremendous determination and I didn’t give up. I had the camera as my witness. For an hour and ten minutes my real life and the scripted scene were indistinguishable. It was like a scene from Diamond no Ace, and it carried everything the show stands for and shows the audience. It was also an actual miserable experience I myself underwent in real life. I am spectator, character and extrinsic all in the same act.

My grandfather had a little cabinet, now a family heirloom. When I first saw it my immediate reaction was: I should copy it so that I have a backup just in case. This instinct seems absolutely ridiculous at first, second and third glance, but the is a legion of items, historical and family heirlooms that over time have had all parts replaced at least once. So what makes a heirloom?

Marcel Duchamp's Boite en Valise for Wim Gregoor by Jack Engelbrecht: A completely original replication with an updated 3D printed urinal