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Installation at the Balen festival Enschede, The Netherlands. 21-25 May 2008.

http://roombeek.nl/balenfestival/expositie/kunstenaarsinitiatieven.html

A massive spheroid room slowly billows in one of the halls of the Westergas terrain in Amsterdam. Foamlab has joined the Kunstvlaai, a show for artist-initiatives and collectives organized by the Sandberg Institute. Within the bowels of this solitary pneumatic structure a headset is hidden. A recorded statement that is played through the headphones divides people into two groups: prickly people and gooey people. The Kunstvlaai extends over several of the Westergas buildings and into the park around them. A host of organisations show a rich variety of experiments and works there.

In the historical basements of the city of Arnhem Foamlab joins the ‘Made under Arnhem’ festival. In the deep vaults a Japanese dancer and choreographer, Kenzo Kusuda emerges from a wanton heap of fabric, the remnants of the Notsnic satellite. This space capsule plummeted back to Earth after it mysteriously liquefied into a silvery molten drop. Guided only by Notsnic sounds recovered by Theun Karelse, the performer and public discover an ever growing shape as the material is inflated.

For the first edition of the Juni-Kunst Maand festival in the Amsterdam district ‘de Baarsjes’ a series of multi-cultural gastronomic feasts are created on a very distinct bridge in the neighbourhood. On three occasions, three teams of chefs bring pleasure to the taste buds and stomachs of ordinary Amsterdamers. With a team of helpers recruited from the community Foamlab serves a South-American meal, a Moroccan meal and a Balkan meal spread over three weekends.

FoAM’s work as a whole could be seen as one large public experiment. However, that’s is not what this page is about. What we call ‘public experiments’ are events which allow our audiences to participate in a creative work-in-progress, that can benefit from their feedback. A public experiment at FoAM can consist of a prototype for an installation, a software demonstration, an improvised performance, or a tasting menu. These works are still in their ‘experimental phase’, without having their edges polished to be considered ‘finished’.

A large orange dome is a theater for flying performances guided by a team of stewardesses. This giant jellyfish is a construction made by the inflatable master Theo Botschuiver. A crowd is managed within the complex. Seated on the second floor of the building, unsuspecting visitors are introduced to the physical reality of flying around the circular room. The stewardesses dressed in uniforms designed by Cocky Eek, only take over in case of an emergency.

The botanical gardens are not usually associated with the living dead, but tonight they are. This is the Vampire Ball. From the high ceiling large shapes are hanging that somewhat resemble bloody lungs. Their appearance there is no mystery, FoAM is responsible for these atrocious organs. And just in time, because from the gutters and graveyards of Brussels a blood-thirsty mob has found it's way to the Botanique, and they are ready to party. The weird and deformed, the partially living and the partially complete dance to horrible tunes until deep into the morning.

http://www.bifff.org/en/