SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION

The permanent work Meaningful Moments in Unspectacular Places was commissioned by TAAK* in an experimental collaboration with a group of students of the IJburg College in Amsterdam, NL. The students were asked to fulfill the roll of the public authorities defining conditions and selecting a work for their assignment.

The finally chosen work Meaningful Moments in Unspectacular Places is a transformation of a part of the wooden barrier of a tram stop in front of the IJburg College (Pampuslaan 1). Interacting with the red and white design the intervention almost looks like a digital disturbance from a distance. But coming closer the word „tongen” becomes cognizable; the Dutch expression for French kissing/ tongue kissing.

Meaningful Moments in Unspectacular Places is a subtle deformation of the basically functional arranged urban space around the tram stop Pampuslaan / IJburg College. This ordinary location is connected with the very intimate and for the involved persons often very intense and meaningful activity of French kissing. The rhythm of the red and white barrier could be seen as an abstraction of the movements of the tongues or the acceleration of the heartbeats just as the starting or still standing trains can become an allegory for the big emotions during or after a first kiss.

*TAAK is an international platform that develops innovative art projects and educational programmes relating to social issues such as ecology, urbanization, social design and human rights (www.taak.me)

photography Helmut Dick