Speak, Memory: Anne Holtrop

12 December 2010 thru 20 February 2011
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Back to overview page Speak, Memory: click here

Personal stories, distorted memories, lost moments and old traditions, traces of buildings: these are the elements that connect the diverse works in this exhibition. Below we focus on the work of Anne Holtrop.

Anne Holtrop (1977) is a Dutch architect who, in addition to his architectural practice, is editor of the independent architectural magazine OASE. His work is often temporary and in that sense conceptual. TRAIL HOUSE (2009), for example, is a temporary house built for the exhibition UNKNOWN TERRITORY (2009) at Museum De Paviljoens. The design of the house was based on improvised paths that ran over a wasteland. People living in the area often didn't take the long route home but cut it short, thereby creating a map of tracks that were used by Holtrop as the basis to design the house. The memory of users, ingrained in paths and tracks, was the inspiration and foundation for this architectural design. The design of TEMPORARY MUSEUM (2010) was inspired by the automatic drawings by Dadaist Jean Arp and showed work by Renie Spoelstra, Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Driessens & Verstappen and Sjoerd Buisman.

In Speak, Memory a model of TRAIL HOUSE will be shown, two pictures by Bas Princen and the thirty positions formulated by Lorenzo de Rita (The Soon Institute) in response to TRAIL HOUSE.

Lorenzo de Rita will give a guided tour through 'Speak, Memory' in English on Sunday January the 30th, 2011. The book TRAIL HOUSE is on sale at Stroom.

The Smallest Universe Ever
In the bathroom the ocean is taking a bath. The wind is flirting around with the curtains, which seem to appreciate the attention. The sky is busy framing itself into the kitchen's window. The night went out for the day but, so we were told, will be back for dinner. The time is lying comfortably on the sofa of the living room, confabulating with the silence. In the bedroom the sun keeps changing its mind on what shadow it should wear. Someone rings the doorbell of the Trail House. The future, slowly, goes to open the door.

[Lorenzo de Rita on Anne Holtrops TRAIL HOUSE in the eponymous book].

Anne Holtrop, Trail House, 2009
photo: Rob Kollaard (Stroom Den Haag)

Anne Holtrop, Trail House, 2009
photo: Bas Princen