Projects

Dwaallicht (Will o the wisp)

Rotterdam, Nieuw Crooswijk, Jan 2004

Duration: 08.2004 - 06.2005
Location: Nieuw Crooswijk, Rotterdam
Participants: 168
Visitors: 1,200
Number of Events: 13
Additional Presentations: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (06.2005-08.2005)

Within the next ten years the Nieuw Crooswijk area in Rotterdam will undergo a massive regeneration. More than ninety percent of the social housing dwellings will be torn down and replaced by middle-class residences. Expectations are that ninety percent of the current residents, mainly working-class people of various ethnic backgrounds, will not be able to return to their neighbourhood. Many of these people have lived in Nieuw Crooswijk for several generations. Their identity is strongly linked to the area's history. With Het Dwaallicht (The Will o' the Wisp) (2004), Van Heeswijk and a team of experts researched the links, connections and relationships within the area in cooperation with its residents.

For a year Het Dwaallicht wandered through the area seeking out the social web and energies that determine its character and identity and link its different urban dynamics. Based on residents' stories and past and current events, mystery writer Dick van den Heuvel wrote a monthly chapter chronicling this mysterious search. These stories were then re-enacted in various locations in the area at monthly events staged in cooperation with residents. For instance, musician Paul de Jong composed a piece based on the sound of Crooswijk, which he performed at various venues, from the local butcher's, to the Asian shop to the Open House, a drop-in and food distribution centre for deprived elderly people. Children demonstrated their vision of the street they lived and played in. There was a guided audio tour of the graveyard, noting memorials to historic figures as well as to beloved neighbourhood residents. Youngsters staged a music and theatre performance around their 'bad reputation', and former strangers shared a friendly meal. Even the current residents' supposedly antisocial nature - a preconception on the part of the regeneration planners - was the subject of an event.

These new stories were then distributed through a door-to-door newspaper. Through the accumulation of these stories a 'new history' of Nieuw Crooswijk was written and its energy mapped out. Het Dwaallicht tried to capture the cultural history of Nieuw Crooswijk and its residents for the future to create a narrative monument to the community. At the end of the project's first year Het Dwaallicht wandered for two months in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, telling its story about a lost neighbourhood. This story will be published in a historical novel: Het Dwaallicht van Crooswijk ('The Will o' the Wisp of Crooswijk').

installation
installation 'Knight of Memory
installation
installation 'Knight of Memory
poster event
poster event 'je laat je niet slopen'
event
event 'je laat je niet slopen'
event
event 'Het verloren akkoord'
event
event 'Persoonlijk verhalen van een begraafplaats'
Letter to the Editor
Letter to the Editor 'My Nieuw Crooswijk is gone'

websitewww.dwaallicht.nl

participants


It's OK... commoning uncertainties

Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
2023


ULTRADEPENDENT PUBLIC SCHOOL (UPS)

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
2023


Community Wellbeing Collective (C.W.C.)

Westside Plaza Westside Plaza Shopping Centre, Wester Hailes Rd, Edinburgh EH14 2SW, Jul 2022
2022


Public Faculty No. 14

Westside Plaza Civic Square in Wester Hailes
2021


Public Faculty No. 13

Vallila, Helsinki
2019


Philadelphia Assembled

Philadelphia Museum of Art
2017


Public faculty No. 12

IGA Kienberg Park, Berlin, Germany
2017


Public Faculty No. 11

Sunset park, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2016


Public Faculty No. 10

Stolipinovo, Bulgary
2015


Public Faculty No. 9

Queens, New York
2015


Public Faculty No. 8

Hollywood Boulevard
2014


PARKWERK

Lohberg/Dinslaken
2014


Geregisseerd geluk

Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch
2014


Habitorials

Trumpington/Cambridge
2014


Trampelpfade

Werthacker
2014


Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative

Pretoriaan 141, Rotterdam
2013


Freehouse Zuid - Wijkwaardenhuis

Pretorialaan 141, Afrikaanderwijk, Rotterdam
2013


Public Faculty No. 5

Copenhagen
2012


Public Faculty No. 4

Hayward Gallery London
2012


Homebaked Bakery

Liverpool
2012


Glücksspiel

Werthacker
2012

drawing
drawing

The Great Unpacking of Associative Life

Marche des Douves, rue des Douves, Bordeaux
2011

Installation
Installation

Talking Trash

Church Street, Goulburn NSW 2580, Australia
2010

project site
project site

2up2down / Homebaked

197-199 Oakfield Road, Liverpool
2010


Public Faculty No. 2

Oleanderplein
2010

still from video shoot
still from video shoot

It runs in the Neighbourhood

Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger
2008


Freehouse Zuid - Radicalizing the Local

Afrikaanderwijk, Rotterdam South
2008


Fields of (inter)action

NAi, Rotterdam
2007

installation in Ram Gallery
installation in Ram Gallery

Amnesia of a Landscape

Pijnacker-Nootdorp, Lansingerland
2006


Face Your World, Museumpark

Museumpark rotterdam
2006


The Blue House

Housing Block 35 Amsterdam, IJburg
2005


In the Field of Players

witte de withstraat Rotterdam
2004


Works, Typologies and Capacities

Neue Geschelshaft Bildende Kunst, Berlin
2004


Some 7

Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2004

Design
Design

De Strip

Westwijk, Vlaardingen
2002


Face Your World

inner city, Columbus, Ohio
2002


A Paper House

Rotterdam (2001), Taipei (2004-2005), Vienna (2005)
2001


Acte de Présence - Sans Valeur

Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana
2000


Draw a line

Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery,Tokyo
2000

installation
installation

Raising a Ruckus

Kunstlerhaus Am Deich, Bremen
2000

performance
performance

An Sich

Botersloot 40, Rotterdam
2000


Freehouse - West

Rotterdam West
1999

Facade Henry Moore
Facade Henry Moore

A Christmas Pudding for Henry

Metropolitan University Gallery, Leeds
1999


The Secret City

Middelburg
1997


Beyond ethics & aesthetics

De Unie, Rotterdam
1997


State of Mind

Villa Alckmaer Rotterdam
1996

installation
installation

Break. Dance.

Cleveland Gallery London
1996


Outside Livingroom

Mookhoekplein Overschie
1994


I + the Other. Art and the Human Condition

Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam
1994


Room with a view

Duende Rotterdam
1993


Room with a view (Private)

Amsterdam, Rotterdam
1993


Room with a view (Longing)

Rheinische Landklinik Kleef
1993


Room with a view (The Neighbour)

Maritime museum Prins Hendrik Rotterdam
1993


The Office

Heurne - Hemden
1993


The Dinner

Rotterdam
1993