Allard van Hoorn

b. 1968, The Netherlands

My work is an ongoing investigation into the relationship between the individual and public space. This theme is being researched in projects that primarily manifest themselves in the public domain, collaborating with architects, designers, choreographers, theatre-makers and composers.

Every space has its own set of rules and behavioural codes in which the individual plays a distinct role. Within this context, the public domain serves as a stage for a theatre play without beginning or end, a script in a continuous state of flux and organic development. The user’s relationship to this space is based on his intertextual experiences with other places and his consumed understandings within these zones of meaning. This way, the individual creates a behavioural choreography that is continuously extended with new elements.

This project was inspired by the tradition of the Aboriginal description of land by song, creating an audible version of the architecture of a former Philips warehouse by translating the building’s topography, by skateboarding it, and transforming the noise into a soundscape by computer.

(Text: e v+ a – matters catalogue, 2010)