Opening WdeW festival 08

Naast het buitenprogramma heb ik ook het openingsevent voor het festival geprogrammeerd: Paradise by the Laptop Light – Echte Natuur is niet Groen.

Wilde systemen, genetische surprises, virtuele landschappen, autonome machines en prachtige zwarte bloemen. De natuur van de 21e eeuw is aan cultuur ontsproten natuur: Next Nature.

Een visual power voorstelling van Koert van Mensvoort met korte films, speedlezingen, speciale gasten en één laptop.

Wereld van Witte de Withfestival 2008

Een moerasman in de Westersingel, kloppende harten in bomen, lopers van kunstgras en een waterval. Rotterdam oogt tijdens kunstenfestival De Wereld van Witte de With wat onwerkelijk. Het festival luidt het begin van het nieuwe seizoen kunst en cultuur in Rotterdam in.

Onder de vlag van Mothership heb ik voor het festival het kunstprogramma gecoordineerd. Daarnaast heb ik het Beeldende Kunst buitenprogramma samengesteld: Swampy/ Pilot projects #2/ de Hand/ Stop, Hummer Time!/Carpark/Pocket Garden.

Het weekend vol; film, theater, dans, literatuur, muziek, debat, mode en beeldende kunst, start op vrijdag 12 september. Dit jaar heeft het festival het thema ‘groen’; niet alleen synoniem voor natuur, duurzaam en milieubewust, maar vooral ook voor jong, fris en onbevangen. Het complete programma is te vinden op www.festivalwww.

THE NEW SHOPPINGBAG Publication2

a small pick out of the …bag

design by the fantastic girls from Studio Beige

SUPERLATIEF

SuperLaTief – an exibition about fighting in Noordkaap/ Dordrecht!

In SuperLaTief reageren kunstenaars op elementen uit de populaire cultuur, zoals vechtsport, bierdrinken, carpimpen, de straat, demolitioncar-racing, de sportschool, tifo sfeerakties, en genretelevisie.
We flirten met ongenoegens die in, maar vooral ook over de Voorstraat in Dordrecht leven; hangjongeren, geluidsoverlast, opgevoerde brommers, drugsoverlast en autopatsers.
We doen dit met een groep stevige kunstenaars die zich bewezen hebben als autonoom, niet corrupt, keihard kritisch en aantrekkelijk.

Centraal in deze tentoonstelling wordt een vechtkooi gebouwd die gedurende de openingsavond op 31 mei 2008 het podium zal zijn voor een programma waarin dj Kid Goesting, vj’s 113B, liveoptredens van de Dordtse rapper Risskant, Martin C. de Waal en de electronic beats van Transformer di Roboter worden afgewisseld met live wedstrijden. o.a. de finale van De Sterkste Kunstenaar van Nederland en een kickboksgevecht tussen kunstenaar Federico d’Orazio en wereldkampioen Muay Thai Boxing 2001 Christian Daghio.
De strijders betreden de kooi via een catwalk op een voor de vechtsport gebruikelijke manier, met volgspots, eigen tune en dames met rondeborden in hotpants.

THE NEW SHOPPINGBAG publication

OUT THIS MONTH!!!!!!

For the last few months I have been working (Art Director/Editor) on this publication. Presenting a new collection of colours and articles on shoppingbags and the people who love them. Susan Bijl’s The New Shoppingbag celebrates its 5th anniversary this year. Witnessing her making her first bag all those years ago and receiving the huge succes that it since had, makes me proud to be part of it now. Working together with Susan, Vincent, Mylena ( SUSAN BIJL) and Risa (GAS AS/IF) was a blast!

MSLM press

by Robb Young for the International Herald Tribune of september 19th 2007

read online here and here

Quote: “… She is not just a woman in an abaya and head scarf,” Khan said. “She could be a woman who wears typical Western clothing in a manner that’s fresh and captivating without being revealing or provocative.”
And Sheik Majed al-Sabah, owner of the Villa Moda luxury retail franchise based in Kuwait, was quick to tap into the idea of traditional garments made by a designer label five years ago. His efforts to convince Prada, Fendi, Marni and others to create decorative but modest caftans for the Middle East proved to be very successful in the region.

But beyond updating their logoed head scarves, should fashion houses in Paris, New York and Milan, who usually only flirt with clichéd ideas on Islamic style, pay this market any mind?

“Seriously, what is happening out there? Or should I see their recent obsession with veils and burqas as fresh?” asks Natasa Heydra, a Rotterdam-based curator and publisher who started MSLM, an edgy, street-wise magazine featuring young Dutch Muslim women. “The problem is that designers don’t seem to get past that. Come on, this could be the start of a fashionable revolution.
“I would love to see traditional Muslim garments stripped from their historic and religious factors and worn for . . . well, their coolness, you know?”…”

Oorsprong van Rotterdam

Art producer Mothership asked me to handle the case of marking the spot! The exact spot from where Rotterdam started.

And so we asked Rotterdam artist Luuk Bode to give special visual expression to the importance of this place.

‘The work of art illustrates the city’s growth. It seems abstract, but if you look carefully you will see that I have created a rather recognisable agglomeration of what the city has looked like through the years. The energy that one feels today has been here for 1200 years. I have tried to grasp the city’s character and energy.’ – Luuk Bode

It was important to us to develope something that wasn’t static, but that lived and moved like the city and its inhabitants. That’s why we put up the painting like a colouring picture. So the Rotterdam people could fill it, finish it and retouch it themselves everyday.

This large, over 3000 square meters ‘Ravensburg’ painting (i.e. painting by numbers) and the information available in the tower show how Rotterdam came into being, how it grew and how it had to fight the waters. The painting shows the explosive growth of the city and harbour in the second half of the 19th century as well as its expanding infrastructure. The ring of fire symbolises the immense destruction that took place here in 1940, changing the city’s countenance completely.

The painting can be seen in its entirety from the tower. Luuk Bode’s tornado stands straight up on the square and seems to move towards you. (trompe l’oeill)

The illustrations in the stairwell give a taste of what the painting will show. Rotterdam’s history, its present and its future pass by.

Design: Luuk Bode

Creative direction and production: Mothership/ Natasa Heydra

Oorsprong Rotterdam/Rotterdam’s Origins is assigned by Rotterdam 2007 City of Architecture.

Where do Rotterdam’s origins lie?

Right here!

This is the spot where a small river, the Rotte, once flowed through the polder. Here is where the dam was built and where the settlement originated. In 1340, Rotterdam and its 2000 inhabitants obtained town privileges and a town seal. Rotterdam’s origins lie under this square, het Binnenrotteplein.

Design: Luuk Bode

Creative direction and production: Mothership/ Natasa Heydra

Oorsprong Rotterdam/Rotterdam’s Origins is assigned by Rotterdam 2007 City of Architecture.

MSLM – the magazine

Photographed by Ari Versluis and designed by: Studio Beige

Years ago, I was a fashion student at the Rotterdam Art Academy. It was a great time and the courses they taught were wonderful. Analysing trends and predictions appealed the most to me. How did communal and even global tendencies convey into the way people would dress? What developments for the future can you foresee today? Fashion is a layered mechanism of endless codes and stories.

If fashion is the face of society, then ours has changed quite a bit over the past years. A group of young women, most of them second generation immigrants, Muslim and fashion conscious, is starting to become more visible. Their way of dress in which concealment plays an important part, made its mark on our Western culture and vice versa. Concealing and revealing have never been in such sharp contrast with each other. From traditions to trends, from the Middle East to the West.

Let’s get real. Every – Muslim – woman wants to be judged based on her character and skill. And now that we’re on the subject, I would like to state that we should abandon the idea that Muslim women have no sense of fashion and simply hide under a headscarf of burqa. My experience is that these girls are not victims of their religion, but wear exactly what they want and are very interested in fashion.

The difference lies in the rules, sometimes in extra clothing, an important role for tradition, appreciation for being a woman and pride. Their choices in what exactly they choose to show and what not, and how, that is our focal point.

There is not one uniform. Within this group there are so many varieties; in tying the headscarf, the colours, the prints, the traditional forms and the combinations. For each girl comes from a different background and extent of involvement with their religion. We can speak of a set of basic rules of adornment in which I find individual choices the most fascinating.

It is important and interesting to approach their Western, Dutch side. Because these girls grew up in the Netherlands as Dutch citizens, a clash -as well as a unification- developed not only between the fashion of the East and the West, but also among this group of Muslim women themselves. This entails new and interesting forms and silhouettes for Muslim and non-Muslim women.

Together with an editorial of five Muslim girls from various backgrounds, a long list of likeminded spirits and young talented creatives we made this magazine with love, without pretension and as an inspiration for young women, for Muslims. Medium, Small or Large, fashion affects everyone.

Peace and Salaam!

Natasa Heydra/ 2007

A little preview of the shoots in the magazine…

Photographed by Nadine, Suzanne Rensink and Miriam Madiol

MSLM – the exhibition