[Exposicao] FollyDock - NAI Rotterdam

[3CPO]

FollyDock - NAI Rotterdam

Gallery 3: June 24 - September 24 2006

Follies exist only by grace of their viewers. They are not there to live or work in, but only to provoke a reaction. Through their bizarre styles, forms and stories, they act as masonry mirrors of the soul; without a response from the passer-by, they do not exist. Artist Lowieke Duran organizes an international 'folly contest' in the Heijplaat district in Rotterdam. The NAI will exhibit the fifty nominated folly designs.


> Sketches of follies on location, the Heijplaat district in Rotterdam. Images: Follydock/L.Duran.

Heijplaat
In the middle of Rotterdam's docklands, the Heijplaat district lies tucked between the yards of the Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM), harbor sheds and shipping containers. RDM started building and maintaining ships there in 1904. Since the yards were quite a long way from the center of Rotterdam and difficult for personnel to reach, the company NV Bouwmaatschappij Heijplaat commissioned the construction of a new garden village. The district had its own schools, shops and churches, and for years its main source of employment was harbor-related industry. Now that industry is leaving the district and the population is ageing, the housing corporation Woningcorporatie Woonbron and the development company Stadshavens Rotterdam N.V. are promoting redevelopment of Heijplaat. Creative, educational and recreational functions are being added and the fabric is being partly restored. New homes are being built too.

International FollyDOCK Contest
The changing situation of Heijplaat prompted the visual artist Lowieke Duran to announce The International FollyDOCK Contest. The brief: design a folly. A folly may be described as an architectural scherzo, a visually provocative, poetical structure without a specific function.

Exhibition
The NAI will exhibit the fifty nominated folly designs. A selection of the follies will be built in the area, which now consists of temporary no-man's lands, empty harbor sheds and dilapidated houses, in 2007 (the Year of Architecture in Rotterdam). The exhibition forms part of a project to give a shot in the arm to a district in the process of transition.

Mais Informacao:
http://www.nai.nl/e/calendar/activities/follydock_e.html

Fonte: NAI.nl