De Orangerie, May 19 – July 14, 2013
Opening May 19
In the Orangerie, Arne Hendriks works in our open park studio on the project The Incredible Shrinking Man . It is an ongoing speculative research project into the possibility of creating a human that is ideally more suited to our Earth.
Humans are getting longer, which means we need more energy, more food, water and space. What happens when we use our knowledge to shrink humans to 50 centimeters so that they only need 5% of the amount of food they need now? Although humans are still growing globally, there is undeniable evidence that they can get a lot smaller. During Zone2Source, Arne Hendriks investigates which specific factors in the living environment of, for example, the Mbuti in the Ituri rainforest in Congo, which has an average height of only 135 cm. being tall slows growth and whether we can reproduce this to control our own unbridled growth. The public is invited to use images of humans in clay to imagine what this smaller person of the future will look like. As a location, the Amstel Park is extremely suitable for conducting research into micro agriculture and livestock farming and through a number of research installations the relationship between the human dimension and consumption will be mapped out more clearly. A workshop and lecture will be organized during the exhibitionthe public participates in the experiment and debate.
Together with scientists, designers and specialists in various fields, Arne Hendriks (1972, Netherlands) has been conducting research into the possibilities of reducing the size of humans since 2010. The ideal of growth in all facets of life is so deeply ingrained in our consciousness that alternatives are often not only not discussed but not even imagined. The Incredible Shrinking Man takes shape in texts, lectures, workshops, and in public situations in which the research is presented and continued within the specific context of the exhibition. For example, a fish farm, a sunflower table, a chicken farm and a vegetable garden balcony have already been created to reflect on the consequences of a smaller person (www.arnehendriks.net).
The open park studio is a unique initiative by Zone2Source in which artists occupy the Orangerie to develop artistic projects and exchange stories with park visitors.
De Orangerie
