The Office Het bureauDuration: 21.08.1993 – 29.08.1993
Location: Former border post, Heurne - Hemden
Participants: 62
Visitors: people visiting the project information centre
Number of Events: daily
As part of European economic and political union, national borders, including those separating Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, were opened, and many border patrol offices were shut down as of January 1993. In the summer of the same year artist Suchan Kinoshita proposed reopening several of these as part of her project Grenspost (‘Border Post’) (1993). Dutch, Belgian and German artists, musicians, architects and theatre makers developed projects centred round their countries’ abandoned border crossings. The premise of this project was based on the actual locations, the artificial concept of a border, the typical architecture of the posts and their obsolete function. Jeanne Van Heeswijk‘s contribution, Het Bureau (The Office)(1993), consisted of offering Suchan a service, that of her administrative skills in organizing and realizing the entire project. This also involved creating an information booth for press and visitors. From 21 to 29 August 1993 Van Heeswijk set up shop in the abandoned border post at Heurne (The Netherlands) - Hemden (Germany). She spoke to passers-by and to press people visiting the re-opened crossing-point and also compiled an archive about the notion of ‘border‘, by posting letters, inviting recipients to send back their thoughts on borders, as well as having a press-clipping service send her a daily packet of all information published about borders in Dutch, Belgian and German newspapers. All this information was on display alongside that of the project and its participating artists.1993, Heurne - Hemden |