Leeszaal in Rotterdam hosted on Monday 24 March 2025 a very important public moment.

Among the works exhibited was the installation connected to the project "Labels, but not for clothes". It included the latest video piece of the project and a new interactive work. Both deal with systemic bias, but from a different perspective: The video is related to the reinforcement of stereotypes through repetition and the interactive piece to exclusion as a means of control.

The installation was supported by props that gave a bleak, bureaucratic air, as many of the decisions regarding what should be part of the public dialogue and which attitudes should be promoted are taken in such vacuums.

The description of the work was in a take-away A4 poem format:

The biblical conflict

[Caption 1: Screen]

A little grown-up monkey,
mimicking stereotypes playing on repeat
empty performances to be filled
with pre-delegated meaning
and a hint of self-awareness.

[Caption2: Laptop]

Even when evading the confines
of definitions
there is exclusion in store.
Death by eradication.

[Caption3: Important Notice]

In the beginning was the spoken word
the spreading voice
the loving touch
building alliances
bringing down kingdoms.

We are organic and so we evolve.
Let's talk.

As part of a bigger, collective project and following the subjective map of Rotterdam this project was adapted to fit the city of Groningen. Inspired as always by infrastructure, it grew to include Eemshaven and to pose questions regarding the cost of development and of our increasing needs in energy and data. Below is the video produced from footage of Eemshaven and the city of Groningen, juxtaposing liminal and gentrified (or on the verge of gentrification) spaces and the ever-expanding energy and data factories of Eemshaven.

An ever-changing mobile population
Our mixed paths
Our lost orientation
Making history that soaks into
An angry earth


A greedy machine is marching
From the end of the world
A new order
A dark mirror.
 
We remain

Stoic like oaks
Entangled
In deep rooted feeling

Or

Anchored like house boats
In half-deserted ports
Rocking with the waft
The ebb and the tide.

In a playful manner, the project also speaks about and celebrates the mundane but magical corners as met by the curious eyes of a stranger.

Here are some pictures of the project in its natural environment: SIGN Project Space, commissioned and hosted the work from 26 September to 6 October 2024. The relevant object which compliments the video was created with SIGN's DIY approach in mind. It incorporates elements of temporality, temporariness, orientation as experienced from the viewpoint of the visitor, thoughts on the big issues of the city and 3D-printed GPS logs.