4 June 2005, 1:30–3 pm / Amersfoort
Where: Vathorst (Amersfoort)
Start: Laakboulevard
Free admission
Route: Take the train to Amersfoort-Schothorst, 12.43 pm bus 5 direction Zielhorst, bus stop: Bergenboulevard.
Take the A1, exit 13 (Amserfoort-Noord), park your car for free at the C1000-Bergenboulevard.
On Saturday 4 June 2005, the Vinex-suburb Vathorst (large-scale new housing development) will host VATHORST GRAND PARADE, a parade in which contemporary cars – as the favorite consumer products of Vathorst inhabitants – take center stage. The concept for the parade was developed by designer Neeltje ten Westenend, as the temporary conclusion to her research project Who’s Afraid of Vinex?.
The study represents Ten Westenend’s fascination for the extent to which the designed environment in a Vinex-suburb like Vathorst influences the identity of its inhabitants and vice versa how the inhabitants’ identity is expressed by their homes, gardens, clothes, and, subsequently, their car. Her study focuses on the transition between public and private spaces, and where do these overlap more seamlessly than in a Vinex-suburb? It is precisely these pioneering areas that serve as archetypes of ideal living; it is here that the utopian promise – living in a malleable environment – becomes reality.
If the exhibition at Casco (19 February-20 March) lovingly focused on the manner in which the Vinex-suburb inhabitants express their identity through interior design, VATHORST GRAND PARADE sees inhabitants presenting their “favorite thing” in a public space. It is with equal dedication that Neeltje ten Westenend calmly reveals the relationship between inhabitant and car, inside-outside using this parade, but with an eye for detail echoing Barthes’ sensual description of the Goddess-like DS.
The car parade will move through Vathorst on 4 June, with choreography by Martin Butler and with bunting and flags, and musically enlivened by the local fanfare, against the film-like backdrop of Vinex-suburb.
