Projects

A Paper House

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

Duration: 10.2001 - 12.2001, 10.2004 - 01.2005, 05.2005 - 06.2005
Location: Witte de With, Rotterdam; Taipei Biennial, Taipei; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
Participants: 45 groups, 5 groups, 14 groups
Visitors: people who visited the exhibitions
Number of Events: 2, 1,15

When Witte de With invited Van Heeswijk to participate in an exhibition called 'Squatters 2', she initially reacted with some scepticism. She wondered what it meant for such an institution to choose what she viewed as a politically laden exhibition theme. The poster she designed for 'Squatters' symbolically illustrates her own standpoint as well as that of Witte de With. In addition to the name and date of the exhibition, the poster has a big white area marked 'plakken mag binnen de lijnen' ('posting permitted within the lines'). Rotterdam had recently banned posting without an official permit, the city council making 'A-0' billboards available for rent as an alternative. Van Heeswijk regards this regulation of what was once a free-for-all as symbolic of the limitation of civil liberties in general. Within the institutionalised framework, she used her posters to provide space for anyone to publicize his or her activities in the city.

For the exhibition space, she proposed a closer look at what squatting meant for the city of Rotterdam. Het Papieren Huis (A Paper House) (2001) is a sculptural collage made in collaboration with Rolf Engelen, Siebe Thissen and Frans Vermeer, combining documents, posters, pictures and photographs of the Rotterdam squatter movement, past and present - telling the story of activists, artists and young people who fought against capitalism and housing shortages, establishing their own communes, initiating campaigns - by appropriating the many layers of posters illegally posted over the years on a kiosk in the city centre. Engelen rescued these when the kiosk was demolished, building panels sawn out of the thick layers of posters into a symbolic shelter. Although a paper house suggests fragility, affording little protection to the homeless, the artists transformed this precariousness into strength by using the peeling layers of weathered paper to evoke resistant, alternative voices calling for a more just world

A fanzine to hand out to visitors was also published, with texts, documents and visual material about squatting, along with two evening events: one with Socialfiction.org & Urban Explorations, and the other with Arjen Mulder and Saskia Poldervaart.

Each showing of the work incorporates new materials from the context in which it is exhibited - with its local housing problems and squatting practices - making the work resonate in ways both general and specific. When the house was shown in 'Do You Believe in Reality?' at the 'Taipei Biennial in 2004, Van Heeswijk fully updated the Rotterdam archive and, with Rolf Engelen, added a new section on the Taipei squatting scene. After Taipei, W H Y displayed the house in the exhibition 'freibesetzt' in Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna, also expanding it with a local section.

click here for panorama photo


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