2012 | Intervention in public space

Large amounts of flower boxes hang on the balconies of the last original ‘honeycomb’ building in the Bijlmer, Kleiburg.
Bijlmer, a neighbourhood in Amsterdam Zuidoost was built in the 60’s as a model housing estate. Currently, Bijlmer is going through a large urban renewal. Many of the high-rise buildings laid out in a hexagonal grid (most known as the ‘honeycomb’ buildings) have been renovated or torn down. Kleiburg is the last original building that has not gone through renovation yet. The building is empty and completely decayed. Its renovation awaits in 2013.
Bijlmer Blooms is a participatory project. Many neighbours have contributed to the project by filling, hanging or watering the flower boxes.

Commissioned by Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost.
Photography: vanwaardenphoto.com

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2012 | Intervention in Public Space

The traditional ‘quintas’ of Barrios Altos in Lima are housing typologies whose spatial organization is based around courtyards and alleys that function as extensions of public space within a private property.
They are places that motivate the development of social relations and strengthen the concept of neighborhood, which has ceased to exist in most districts of Lima due to the implementation of new housing configurations that give priority to private spaces.
A collaborative project by Fiona de Bell, Teresa Borasino and Sandra Nakamura that aimed to highlight the potential for self-organization of the ‘quintas’ of Barrios Altos. The artists worked with “Las Guerreras” (The Warriors), a group of 18 women who at the time of the intervention had received numerous threats of eviction by a real estate corporation.
The intervention consisted of a choreography of actions that took over the street: two long grills, each six meters long, were used to block road traffic, closing the street like barricades in intervals of twenty minutes. On them, “Las Guerreras” grilled skewers that were offered to the public. While the street remained closed, a group of people slowly carried objects from the inside of the ‘quinta’ and loaded them into a moving truck, along the rhythm of a marching band, as if a religious procession: an eviction rehearsal. At the same time, three scriptwriters gathered testimonies on their typing machines, recording the memories, fears and perceptions of neighbors and passers-by.

With the support of Mondriaan Foundation and the Dirección de Cultura de la Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima.

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2011 | Intervention in public space

Public spaces in Lima are usually controlled through gates. These elements restrict the use of public spaces for the sake of exclusivity, order and security, and even beauty (when it comes to parks), finally ending up with a landscape of bars.

In ‘Gravitatory Intervention’, park visitors and passers-by tied thousands of helium balloons to the gate of Parque Universitario in Lima, in a poetical attempt to let the gate take off.

This project acts on elements that restrict the use and access to spaces whose function is to host the citizen, to be places of connection, identification, urban living and community expression.

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2010 | Intervention in public space

The idea of a boat trip as a daily activity is, in some ways, peculiar. In the past, boats were the only means of transportation across long distances. These journeys would last months and are associated with extended farewells and waving goodbye, long-term expeditions and world discoveries. This particular ferry however, goes back and forth several times a day, each trip taking about 5 minutes. It repeats the same cycle systematically, constantly departing and arriving. The journey becomes mechanical, overlooked and trivial.
‘Farewell’ is a project developed for the Houthavenveer, the ferry that connects the Tasmanstraat in Amsterdam West with the NDSM area in Amsterdam North. The project addresses the connection between a regular ferry trip with the broader history of boat travel.
On May 18, 2010, thirty-four people bade farewell to the ferry. Standing on the edge of the quay they waved goodbye to the people on board. This gesture was repeated every time the ferry departed during the morning rush hour. The people who arrived at the dock encountered the farewell committee unexpectedly. The project attempted to break the ferry passenger’s daily routine and transform a trivial activity into an unusual event.

This project has been realized with the generous support of Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Fonds BKVB.

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01.07.2009 - 01.07.2010

2009 | A walk through the Amstelpark

Rexcursie was part of the exhibition Groene Vingers (Green Fingers), which took place in Het Glazen Huis on March 2009 in Amsterdam.

With the collaboration of IVN Amsterdam and Zet Foundation I organised two excursions in the Amstelpark in Amsterdam, together with neighbours, nature guides and park visitors. I asked each participant to choose a place beforehand that for a certain reason caught his or her attention. It could be a place that brought back a memory, a sense of nostalgia or inspiration, an annoying or a pleasant place. Then they had to take the rest of the group there. In this way we would create a new route concentrating only on the shared experience itself,  guiding one another.

Participants who were familiar with the park would take the lead more often. The nature guides from IVN had more scientific information about different plant and animal species. On the other hand, those who didn’t know the park would stop at places that caught their eye at that specific moment for a specific reason.

The intention of this project was to create a new context in time and space where people would meet and share an experience that could enhance their awareness of that specific (nature) environment. It was also an attempt to break our Sunday afternoon routine.

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