Visited Aorta yesterday, the center for architecture that hosts the presentations of other MaHKU graduates. Very well-balanced presentation, nice in its unity of form. Am happy not to be an interior design or public space design master though – I would not have liked to be poured in such a strict mold. But it works for them.

Pic shows part of the documentation for the Transpair project my friend Loes has done, see my blogs about it. She managed to smuggle in one of her Transpair-ed objects at Aorta: an Eames office chair with a wooden leg. Pic shows the laptop that  has the little girl Transpair-ing away – and a selection of other pictures, of course.

This is Loes, wrestling with the giant knit I made for her Transpair house. She’s going to turn it into a mobile wardrobe – nice idea. I used up the better part of 4 old blankets to knit this thing. It was a major undertaking, am feeling its  effects on the poor muscles that move my fingers  even as I type this.

Worth it though.  I like working with Loes, we did a book before for Joost Grootens, which went very well. She’s good at details like picking the exact font and paper colour for the index in the book. But she thinks like a visual artist.  Keep telling her she should have been in the Fine Arts department, but she’s sort of wedded to things having a function.

Then again, art has a function, hasn’t it?

Went to the Transpair house yesterday, armed with husband, the little girl and chain saw. Loes needed help finishing some or the projects at  her temporary  home. Lots of people come in and start interesting things, our goal was to finish some of these projects. We ended up giving the kitchen a makeover, see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics. Kitchen is now an island on a red floor, work bench attached. Made out of a large cabinet that was in the room already (not visible on camera) but looked out of place with the rest.

I love this house – I want one just like it!  The whole experiment has made me look at furniture in a different way – not at what it’s function is now but what great (or silly)  things can be done with it. I myself did some nice things to the chandelier (visible as a beige blob above the table), also started knitting a room divider / clothes storage thing. I am using some old blankets that I cut up in ribbons  for yarn. Looks promising. I’ll go back monday and knit some more.

Participated in “Transpair”  today, the project of fellow student Loes Glandorf. She’s going to live on top of a lot of broken stuff for 10 days, and asks her friends to come in and transfigure-repair so that at the end of the period she’ll have a functional house and furniture.

Today is brainstorm day, and in a couple of days I’m going to use my giant knitting needles and attack a number of woollen blankets with them. Can’t wait!

Pic shows us at the Transpair site, Loes installed a webcam plus livefeed, see her here.

Visited Expodium last friday week to hear the debate named “The Bollocks!” between Anna Tilroe (Dutch art critic), Jonas Staal (politically engaged Dutch artist) en Tim Voss (German curator). Tim used to be  director of  ’Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof’ in Hamburg until recently.  Since may 2010 he is director of production- and exhibition space W139 in Amsterdam.

I’ll focus on his contribution, as he touched a topic that I used to study: the mechanics of inner-city development. I liked Tim’s depreciating style and was interested to hear about his experiences in Hamburg, where artist are protesting the fact that they are being used as gentrifying agents.

The group of artists that Tim talked to us about made the painful discovery that the Hamburg authorities have consciously used their presence in the Williamsburg area in order to upgrade the neighbourhood.  Artists were invited to work in an alley of  run-down buildings (the ‘gaenge’ that their website ‘komm in die gaenge‘  talks about). Then small shops, restaurants, creative industries appeared. Another process of gentrification on its way, pushing out the original inhabitants by dent of the rents rising steeply. I understand why Tim is protesting the phenomenon. Yet I think that a city must have this kind of dynamics to stay alive, to regenerate it’s uses and possibilities.

In the Netherlands, these processes are often masterminded by housing corporations working together with local government.

A Dutch artist who has commented on the gentrification of her ‘hood in Rotterdam is Jeanne van Heeswijk.  Nieuw Crooswijk, her Rotterdam neighbourhood, is being re-built almost completely in a period of 10 years.  More than ninety percent of the social housing dwellings will be replaced by middle class residencies. The fictional figure of ‘Dwaallicht’ (= Will ‘o the Wisp) that Jeanne  created commented on and facilitated discussions about this process. “Dwaallicht” became a presence, a voice for the old inhabitants, of whom 90% is not expected to return to Crooswijk after the planned massive regeneration. What I like abouit Jeanne’s work is that hers is not a voice of protest per se, she acts as mediator, communicator, go-between, ‘urban curator’ organising  lucid and poetic interventions. She  stimulates and creates  new figures of public space, creating new meeting zones as well as remodelling existing ones.