From Amsterdam To Sweden

Screencap taken
from the Voordekunst.nl
webiste

In the last week of my project at Voordekunst.nl the crowd funding for the Pony Performance got to another gear. I had to contain myself not to check up on the percentage every hour! New sponsors saw the necessity to make a contribution, and people who already made a donation decided they wanted to adopt another pony. Eventually the project achieved 106% which made me jump out of my seat.  In my Bachelor thesis I explored the subject of categorization, the human desire to   have a certain order, system or trying to find some sort of logic by making groups of likewise 'objects'. Collecting has been in fashion by members of the Royal Family and other high placed people a kind. They were founded by the need for more knowledge, to impress  and/or to entertain. But whatever their purpose or source they always placed the accumulator of these 'objects' in the centre of their universe. I found the possibility to open up the My Little Pony collection for adoption, therefor involving other people besides myself refreshing and at the same time daunting. And I must stress that I experienced the first few weeks, when there were no adoptions at all very nerve racking. It all worked out well. The pony Performance was going to join Stockholm's Fringe Fest STOFF 2012! I realized that it was actually happening when all the Pony items were placed into large boxes and they were safely locked into the campervan. I put on a cd, punched Stockholm / Sweden into the GPS system and started driving.

Kulturhuset is an enormous building in het heart of Stockholm. Dominated by the Crystal fountain (vertical accent in glass and steel) by Edvin Öhrström and the adjoining Sergels Torg (Sergel's Square) makes it the No1 spot
where people go for culture, art and entertainment.

Fortunately the elements worked in my favor, there was no deadline meaning I could combine traveling and sight seeing at the same time! The weather was in one word fantastic, blue skies since I started packing in Amsterdam. Nothing but sunshine that granted breathtaking sunsets every single day for over 9 days! Okay, there was a dash of rain on one day but that is as far as it goes. From Germany to Denmark and arriving in Sweden. The first impression of Stockholm made a big impact, you have been driving through endless nature for days and suddenly you are in the middle of a city filled with buildings that exclaim Royalty, luxury and Art Nouveau. The Kulturhuset in the city center would host the STOFF event. It reminded me of the Gerrit Rietveld university, lots of concrete and huge windows to drown you with daylight. And there it was written on one of the windows: Stockholm was transformed to STOFFHOLM that would take over the city with performances, installations, videos and other art forms during Aug 22 - 25. There on the third floor I would be performing twice...

Kulturhuset STOFF Fringe Fest 2012