Intervention

The Location:

The place we have been assigned to use for our intervention is called Kleinpolderpad in Blijdorp, Rotterdam.
It is a location with a large motorway crossing and a buildings site, but not much going on in terms active interference with the place. Geese, lorries and very few bicycles come past and occasionally the place is used by unfortunately rather unprofessional graffiti sprayers to interact with the place.

First ideas:

Our first ideas were to implement the public by giving the place a purpose that is a rest area in this case. We decided to make plans for the transformation of the place into an opportunity to take a break while on the bike and take a quiet sit next to the canal. To make sure the place is made interesting, we would build cardboard benches, hang up a swing and offer bicyle stands.

New ideas and inspiration:

After further discussion about our intervention, we came up with the conclusion that we should come up with a simpler, yet more efficient idea for the intervention. Using the art that can be found in the environment, graffiti for instance, we aim at connect it to important features of the area such as the zoo located in the neighbourghood of Blijdorp. This connection has already been made in modern urban art by street artist Roa or Don R for example. Because this particular place in Blijdorp does not exactly live up to the meaning of the Dutch word 'blij', we started to prepare the intervention to hang up zoo animals under the bridge in order to liven up the place.

Because the area we were assigned to is hardly visited by pedestrians willing to actively participate, we decided to ask the headmaster of a local primary school to ask a group of 8 to 12 year old children to paint the animals with the use of stencils that would then be hung up at our location. We had a great experience working with children who very motivated and excited but also exceeded our expectations by far and we had a great time working with them.

Later on the same day, we made sure all the picture were presented properly and cut out, we went back to Kleinpolderpad to hang up our exhibition of zoo animals under our bridge.

Mapping of the location

First ideas & inspirations:

Maps:

Location Location Location

Inspiration Inspiration Inspiration

Exhibition Exhibition Exhibition

Results Results Results

The Final product of the intervention was a video we made about the process of what we did. I shows the part where we worked together with children and how we presented the animals at the actual location.