Places of Ruin

Many say that The Netherlands is slightly too proper, polished, too spruced up, and so we travel to grimy cities, decaying ruins and scarcely lit cafés. We enthusiastically embrace the dingy and unorganised aspects of abandoned villages or derelict houses stained by humidity and graffiti-clad. Destitution has developed as an aesthetic concept that we constantly see everywhere; how many restaurants do have 3-ply toilet paper, but don’t place lampshades around their bulbs? In shabbiness lies true beauty. Or…?

For the exhibition On Speaking Terms, that was to be seen in Nest from September 9 to November 5, Studio L A designed an architecture that enabled the spectator to view art from a different perspective. An arena was built in the heart of Nest, surrounded by ramps, stairs and Baroque drapes. The artworks of On Speaking Terms have now disappeared, and Nest offers the chance to a band of artists to make the space their own, to break it down, and rebuild it once again. In two months’ time a triptych will unfold as various artists spend individual work-periods encrusting the architecture with consecutive layers of earth.

In Places of Ruin artists will explore the glorification of impoverishment.