People You May Know | PYMK
DISCIPLINES
Art direction, Editorial, Exhibition, Print, Workshop
DISCIPLINES
Art direction, Editorial, Exhibition, Print, Workshop
About the exhibition
Exhibition | Event in and around gallery De School Groede
from August 29 to October 17, 2009
Schuitvlotstraat 13 Groede
All over the global virtual world of the Internet, people are connected to each other in various network structures. People You May Know | PYMK is an event that uses the social structure of the most popular of these friend networks, namely Facebook. Through the tool People You May Know, Facebook introduces friends of friends to each other, based on the idea that everyone in the world is ultimately only six handshakes apart.
A beautiful thought. But also a nightmare. The utopia of people connected across time and space is simultaneously the curse of the information society and the wet dream of every secret service. So what does it actually mean: People You May Know?
This idea also underlies the exhibition | event People You May Know | PYMK. Initiator Hester Scheurwater invited Facebook friends who in their own way invited others. With the aim: to create an exhibition that, just like Facebook, breathes and lives. People You May Know | PYMK is an exhibition that not only brings together artists, but also critics, curators, musicians, galleries, museums, writers and graphic designers. Just like Facebook, People You May Know | PYMK is a continuous work in progress.
Dana Linssen (film critic NRC Handelsblad and editor-in-chief de Filmkrant)
One of the tasks that graphic designers often get is to make structures clear. How do you create order in chaos? How do you bring data that you have collected or received into a readable, visually attractive whole?
About the Design
Following research into the community of Groede, a group of students from the Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam came across a legend. The legend was about the patroness Eline, who is said to have lived in Groede around 1400. According to this legend, she would appear in the reflection of puddles when there is a risk of flooding.
Since Groede is located in one of the areas that is one of the weakest links in the Netherlands, it is very possible that the patroness Eline will appear again. When she appears again, it is therefore very important that people recognize the danger. However, upon inquiry, it turned out that only a few Groede residents were familiar with the legend. This is how the idea was born to make this patroness more well-known.
In the weekend of 28, 29 and 30 August 2009, 7 students led by Renate Boere went to the village of Groede and interviewed as many residents as possible. At the end of the conversation they invited the residents to join a lunch in the field on Sunday 30 August where the legend would be recited to the residents. In honour of the patroness Eline a reconstruction of the legend was filmed and shown in the fountain of Groede during the wild-beam festival, organised by Hester Scheurwater on 29 August 2009. The graphic design students had also designed a logo that symbolises the story of the patroness. In the freshly mown cornfield where the lunch with the residents took place, the students visualised this logo in clay. As a souvenir the residents were given the symbol on a tile to take home.
Evidence was found based on the interviews. Eline really did live. A resident of Groede who worked in the church for years had found a small note from her hand there years ago.
“PYMK explores the utopian and dystopian aspects of global connectivity.”
“The exhibition breathes and lives, reflecting the ever-changing nature of social networks.”
Colophon
Participation in the exhibition PYMK: Exhibition Artists books designed by Renate Boere in the period 1997-2009
Participants working weekend: Mathieu Cremers, Tim Holscher, Thijs de Jong, Robin de Kok, Merel Maltha, Sophie Mitterberg, William Mooijman, Bjorn Planken under the direction of Renate Boere