Home & Away #11
The High Rise (with Jacob Voorthuis)
12.12.2015

The Climb, Photo: Danny Coen
Home & Away #11: The High Rise
Lets meet at the entrance of Nieuwe Luxor Theater
Posthumalaan 1, 3072 AG Rotterdam

Saturday 12 December, 2015 13:00-17:30 H

Walking along the footpaths in Rotterdam, today and over the years thousands, millions of steps are made. People you know, or could one day, walk along these paths. On Saturday 12 December we will add to these steps, retracing and filling in the gaps that we skipped over when rushing elsewhere. Along the way, we slowly ascend higher and higher following the complex lines of the city.

Walking through the city and living in the clouds are the themes of Home & Away #11: The High Rise. It is through the process of looking up and peering down, whilst weaving our way through the city we will find ourselves adding to it. At the peak of the walk, Dr. Jacob Voorthuis will present his essay ‘Walter Benjamin, Ambling Through the City of a Mind’. From exhibition space Wallgallery, and also the home of Han van den Born and Michel van Adrichem we will trace our route, making it anew with our eyes and ears as we listen to Dr. Voorthuis excavate Benjamin’s writings to come up with useful instruments to help us understand the working of cities on our experience.

Following the talk we will share a light meal and warm drinks, where Michel van Adrichem will speak about living in the sky whilst living with art, and how Wallgallery is incorporated into his artistic practice.

Kindly bring your OV-chip card as the day may require a short trip on public transport. Also please be advised that it will be cold and possibly rainy; so bring your wet weather gear and comfortable shoes.

Dr. Jacob Voorthuis lectures in the philosophy of the built environment at the TU Eindhoven. With a special interest in the relationship between spatial practice and design, his research is concerned with the possibility of judging designs and design decisions from the perspective of a developing ontology of use, the attempt to remodel our conception of use and the useful in design thinking. Dr Voorthuis graduated in 1988 in Art History at the University of Leiden, specializing in Art Theory and Aesthetics. In 1996 he defended his doctorate, which attempted to confront the subject of architectural design and its role in society with philosophical analysis.

Wallgallery is not a commercial enterprise nor a hobby but a radical concept to live with and promote art. In this space for art, created by Han van den Born and Michel van Adrichem on the 37th floor of The Red Apple in Rotterdam, the owners also live. A rough concrete wall screens off the outside world, defines the room and offers backcover for panoramic views. It can also hold an experimental vision. Every season an exchange of art (or whatever idea transformed into reality) takes place in an open-minded environment. Each presentation aims at turning views into vision.

Home & Away is a thematic program series bringing together Dutch and international audiences with artists, composers, philosophers, poets, translators, academics, and performers to think about what it is to be away, or stay at home. The program itself travels between its home at West Den Haag to cities such as Leiden & Sao Paulo to extend question.