Multi-year program: Upcycling

Period: 31 January 2010 - 14 July 2013
Location: Stroom Den Haag, Hogewal 1-9, The Hague

"We know what things cost, but we have no idea what they are worth."
This is how British historian Tony Judt characterizes our current era in his book Ill Fares the Land (2011). What is extraordinary, we have come to take for granted. As a result, we fail to see that we have reached a state of impasse. It is precisely here that visual art can offer a way out and provide new perspectives; artists are uniquely capable of revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary. They help us to look differently, to glimpse into alternative realities, and to give new meaning and value to what is familiar, banal, or mundane. Whether it concerns fluorescent lights, a urinal, a horse blanket, tiled floor, triangle, cutlery, the number 5, or a bottle of dish soap.

It is this quality of art that inspired Stroom Den Haag to initiate the program Upcycling. While working on the exhibition Ombouwen/Restructure (2007), which presented intelligent forms of building based on concepts such as superuse, cradle to cradle, and building lightness, Stroom became increasingly intrigued by the term upcycling — a principle derived from the cradle-to-cradle philosophy.

The term upcycling was first used in 1994 by Reiner Pilz and was the title of a book written in 1999 by Gunter Pauli and Johannes F. Hartkemeyer. In 2002, the concept was further developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. In their view, upcycling is the counterpart to downcycling, the other half of the recycling process. Downcycling converts materials and products into new matter of lesser quality. Upcycling, on the other hand, increases the meaning and value of a product as it is transformed into a resource for future use.

Program
Upcycling has so far been mainly applied to consumer products that can be reused, such as high-quality packaging materials. Stroom Den Haag aims to deepen the concept of upcycling by using the disciplines of visual art, design, and architecture to explore the increase of meaning and value from an artistic, social, and philosophical perspective.

The overarching Upcycling program consists of three exhibitions: Up to You (2010), focused on activating the audience; There, I Fixed It (2011), which presented unconventional solutions to more or less urgent problems; and United We (2013), which brought together various disciplines around the themes of upcycling and collectivity. In 2017, a publication was released in co-production with Valiz, books and projects: Facing Value (Radical perspectives from the arts) (2017).

Up to You (2010)
Up to You brings together the work of architect Yona Friedman (1923), designer Thomas Lommée (1979), and artist Navid Nuur (1976). In their work, they consciously incorporate aspects such as time and chance - elements our society is not equipped to handle. Society seems designed to build in certainty, whether captured in ideal images or ideal numbers. In vain, of course - certainty is an illusion. In the work of Friedman, Lommée, and Nuur, there is a gesture, an inviting act that encourages the audience, resident, or user to give their own meaning to the work. Friedman’s ville spatiale, Lommée’s OpenStructures, and Nuur’s interimodules provide a starting point, but refrain from defining the final outcome. They call upon us to be willing to take action ourselves.

There, I Fixed It (2011)
There, I Fixed It represents a mentality, a way of looking at materials and problems that is bold and unexpected. These problems may be small and everyday, but also large and global in scope. The exhibition presents works distinguished by their ability to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary. The artists achieve this through unique uses of materials, a different perspective on what is considered usable, and a strong sense of improvisation, self-sufficiency, and temporality. In both concrete and poetic ways, the artists avoid dominant economic strategies and standardized production models, thereby offering unconventional solutions to urgent problems.

United We (2013)
United We is an inspiring group exhibition that brings together various disciplines around the themes of upcycling and collectivity. This time, the focus lies on the system that provides the conditions for value creation. In other words: after You and I, this third installment is about We - the form of organization. Under the title United We, Stroom presents alternative management systems, organizational models, and forms of collaboration. Here, the focus is not on the individual, nor on merely maintaining the status quo, but on a new form of collectivity. Is a future possible that is not solely driven by growth, power, and profit, but where added value arises through the collective?

Dumpster Diving Excursion
As part of the public program accompanying There, I Fixed It, a dumpster diving excursion was organized. Robin from casarobino guided participants along garbage bins and containers to collect food that was still perfectly edible but had been discarded for various reasons. This practice, known as dumpster diving, is gaining popularity and raising awareness of how much usable food we throw away.

Time/Bank and Time/Store The Hague
Following the exhibition There, I Fixed It, the Dutch branch of the e-flux Time/Bank and the Time/Store The Hague opened at Stroom at the end of May 2011. Here, services and goods are exchanged and traded without the use of money — an alternative international economic platform where services and knowledge can be traded for time instead of money. At the end of 2012, Time/Bank was evaluated, and it was decided to make the organization independent. In 2013, Stroom withdrew both content-wise and organizationally from the Time/Bank project. The bank now operates as an autonomous association under the name Timebank.cc. However, Stroom continues to host a Service Desk in its own building on the Hogewal in The Hague.