16 May–25 October 2001
On 16 May 2001 the Casco-mobile launched in Utrecht (NL). The Casco-mobile is an aluminum “coffee & bagel” cart, flown in from New York, where it is part of the cityscape as a small economical workplace for one person.
During the year 2001 the Casco mobile will depart from its homebase Casco to different areas of Utrecht to inform its residents and passers-by about Casco’s activities. All of this, while serving a cup of coffee.
With the Casco-mobile, the Rotterdam based artist Jeanne van Heeswijk presents her project Casco, Coffee & Communication. The project is the result of her research into a possible “communication model” for contemporary art, in particular for Casco. Unlike the usual outreach program, the Casco-mobile places emphasis on dialogue. For Van Heeswijk the dialogue is the ideal form of communication, to exchange ideas on contemporary art. The Casco mobile is the tool to facilitate this dialogue. In her projects Jeanne van Heeswijk introduces and develops elements that function as a catalyst to generate other (social, political, cultural) processes, like in Room with a View (1993-1997), Hotel New York P.S.1 (1998-2000) en Valley Vibes (since 1998).
The Casco-mobile, which contains a part of the Casco archive amongst other things, goes out into the streets during the day and is parked in Casco overnight. To enable this, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Johanna Luhmann (project partner) make some adjustments to the Casco space in the coming month. A regularly changing program will be offered from the Casco-mobile by different invited “manager-artists.” The first program will be presented by Jeanne van Heeswijk herself. In the period from 16 May until 8 June, she will start the series with a programme promoting the Casco-mobile in the city of Utrecht. To bring the mobile to the attention of Utrechters, Jeanne van Heeswijk will present two daily specials “Aandachtstrekkers” (Attention Seekers) and “De tweede kansplant” (The Second Chance Plant) by Rolf Engelen.
