Studio De Bakkerij is a cultural center and local theater, located in the old chocolate factory in north of Rotterdam. For the summer we were asked to design their foyer space and big white wall for the summer exhibition ‘Ik slaap, maar ik slaap nog niet’/’I’m sleeping, but i’m not sleeping yet’.

For this exhibition we collaborated with the SKVR (an educational arts center for children and adults in Rotterdam), who organized poetry lessons on two primary schools. The kids learnt on a creative way to write a poem and make a design about the theme: ‘Sleeping’, with a focus on bedtime rituals. For example what do you do just before going to bed or what do you see, hear or experience around that time, like hearing strange sounds or you’re reading your favorite book.

The results of the funny, creative and wonderful poems were our inspiration to design and make a colorful dreamscape and fluffy like-a-cushion exhibition. Some poetic sentences of the kids’ poems were made into giant fluffy display between dreamlike organic shapes on the big white wall. Visitors can also hide themselves in the teepee tent we made, to get their own inspiration or just to play or have a power nap between the poems. All the kids poems were also printed on fabric and turned into cushions, so at the end of the exhibition the young poets have their own piece of poetry art souvenir to bring back home.

The exhibition is free to visit the whole summer holiday 2019 at Studio de Bakkerij, Bergweg 283, Rotterdam

For more information about Studio de Bakkerij: https://www.studiodebakkerij.nl/

And the SKVR, where you can follow a poetry course yourself: https://www.skvr.nl/