Opening of Children's Biennial
11 March 2024
Friday marked the opening of the Children's Biennial at the Groninger Museum.
In addition to my work The Blue City, which measures 11 by 2 by 3 metres, you can build with plastic waste yourself in the hall. This white plastic waste was collected by the children and youth ambassadors who were involved in many ways in the creation of the exhibition. Thanks also to Alex Tjoelker who collected, selected and cleaned an excess of diverse white plastic at Kringloop Gougoed.
During the opening, I stood in the room with youth ambassadors Blanca and Hagar to answer questions and, after a while, to sweep the construction site clean again so that new builders could get back to work.
Many thanks to
Ellis Hendriksen
Lisse de Bie
Alex Tjoelker
Groninger Museum
ELJA Foundation
Thanks also to all plastic waste collectors
Haagse Milieu Service, Steinmetz de Jong fruithandel Haagse Markt, Coen Faber of WEP Circular, Harald Buitenhuis of Cleaning Twente, Erwin Wevers, Rebecca Banens, Greenteam UMCG, Joris Somers of Sanquin, kringloop GoudGoed and of course all family, friends and (un)acquaintances.
The text on the board near my work was written by Tesse Nieuwdam, 10 years old
THE BLUE CITY
Carolien made the blue city out of plastic that people throw away. The people
in the city must be blue too, I think they eat blue food and drink blue milk. I would eat a blue chocolate bar there. It's a city of the future, all the animals there are blue too. In my real room, I have blue curtains. But if I had a room in this city, my view would also be blue. I hope there will be less plastic so that things will be better for nature. I dream of a clean we- reld, sometimes that makes me sad, I don't like it.
The theme of the exhibition is 'A Better Place' and will last until 3 November.
Fellow exhibitors are: Jelle Mastebroek, Studio Toer, Florentijn Hofman, Hedy Tjin, Wang Ruobing, Stefan Venbroek, Sanne Boekel, Florien Riezebos and Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan.
For more information, visit the Groninger Museum site.
