Up to You

31 January thru 28 March 2010
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Opening: January 30, 2010, 5 pm: by Mels Crouwel*
Preceded at 4 pm by an introductory talk with Thomas Lommée and Navid Nuur

Download the exhibition notes (pdf)

*Mels Crouwel, founder of Benthem Crouwel Architekten, Chief Government Architect 2004-2008, and known for the Malietoren and the future Central Station in The Hague, for Schiphol airport and the new Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He is a collector of the work of both Yona Friedman and Navid Nuur.

Guided tours:
Sunday February 14, 2010, 3 pm
Sunday March 14, 2010, 3 pm
Sunday March 21, 2010, 3 pm

Lectures:
HaAc (Haags Architectuur Café) will organize two lectures on location: Hans van Beek (atelier PRO) on March 16 in Couperusduin; and Herman Hertzberger on March 23 in the Ministery of Social Affairs.

The exhibition 'Up to You' brings together the work of architect Yona Friedman, designer Thomas Lommée and artist Navid Nuur. Very consciously they deploy aspects such as time and coincidence in their work. This is something the society we live in is not prepared for. Our society is built on security, represented by ideal images and ideal numbers. All in vain, because security is an illusion. Allowing insecurity to enter the design process creates a sense of freedom. There is room for change, surprise and appropriation. Friedman, Lommée and Nuur make an inviting gesture, encouraging the public, resident or user to give his or her own interpretation of the work. Friedman's ville spatiale, Lommée's OpenStructures and Nuur's interimodules provide a point of departure, but don't comment on the final image. We the audience are asked to become active ourselves.

Yona Friedman
Traditional urban planning is based on the predictability of human behaviour. Yona Friedman (1923), however, is convinced that the development of cities is unpredictable, which makes it impossible for an urban planner to design a proper city for its inhabitants. Friedman wants to give the citizen the final say and in the 1950s he developed the ville spatiale; large, open and flexible structures, preferably raised from street level, in which the residents themselves can shape their living environment. In manuals for the self-planner (strip cartoon images) he shows us the way. In the exhibition several of these manuals and models will be shown, including one for the Binckhorst, an industrial area in The Hague.
This part of the exhibition is made possible by Helene Fentener van Vlissingen (co-author of 'Yona Friedman. Structures serving the unpredictable', 1999, NAi Publishers and editor of the website www.yonafriedman.com) and Angelique van Grootel.

Thomas Lommée
In the work of Thomas Lommée (1979) systems, structures and the way individuals can use them collectively and individually play a central role. His research project Open Structures develops models for a sustainable and democratic way of designing. It is an open system where anyone can design with a kind of ‘collaborative Meccano'.
Studio website: www.intrastructures.net

Navid Nuur
Navid Nuur (1976) explores and changes the way we perceive and experience a certain space starting from his interest in what we record unconsciously or risk missing because we are focusing on something else. His installations, drawings and objects are best described as modules of thought. He himself prefers to call them ‘interimodules'. A module for a way of thinking/concept, a temporary ‘in between'.
Especially for this exhibition Navid Nuur's new work, 'MY PREIM II', will be available to the public in a signed edition.
Website Navid Nuur

Acknowledgement:
‘Up to You' is part one of ‘Upcycling', a program which takes place over the course of several years. Its aim is to investigate alternatives in creating value and meaning. The exhibition is made possible in part by: Mondriaan Foundation, The Netherlands Architecture Fund, Ingenieursbureau Den Haag, Z33 Hasselt.

The theme 'Upcycling' stems from the Stroom exhibition OmBouwen/ReStructure (2007) which among other things dealt with cradle-to-cradle (C2C).

Links:
Yona Friedman, 'Des Utopies Réalisées' (Centre d'Art Contemporain - Mouans-Sartoux, France)
thru June 6, 2010
Thru February 14, 2010 Navid Nuur's solo exhibtion 'The value of void' in Fridericianum in Kassel.
From March 20 thru June 6, 2010 Navid Nuur will have a solo exhibition in De Hallen in Haarlem, entitled 'The value of void'.