Andy Mossack visits the new free BlowUp Art The Hague inflatable installation.
I suspect the ancient bricks of the Binnenhof, the Dutch parliament building, have never seen anything like it in all its 800 years. Gently bobbing on a bespoke floating pontoon almost within touching distance of the castle walls, The Hague’s annual month-long inflatable blow up art exhibition has returned for its third outing.
This kaleidoscope of inflatable creativity belies the perception this city is the dull sister to flamboyant Amsterdam. Simply a place of boring bureaucrats and stuffy politicos who spend their days debating European law and nights wining and dining in fancy restaurants.
Don’t believe a word of it.
While Amsterdam’s hordes roam the streets with stag and hen parties and cruise ship day trippers, The Hague’s elegant squares and leafy streets lined with gorgeously gabled architecture are an absolute delight to wander. Delve a little deeper and you’ll find a city with a true bohemian heart. After all, in a country blessed with so many famous artists, this was where many of them learned their craft. Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Vermeer et al. And let’s not forget The Hague is the home of Vermeer’s masterpiece, The Girl With The Pearl Earring.
The Hague just happens to also be the only Dutch city by the sea, just a few minutes away in Scheveningen, where a gloriously huge beach, trendy beach bars and giant sand dunes await. Boring? Not on your nellie.
BlowUp Art The Hague is masterminded by The Hague & Partners and curator Mary Hessing whose talent and reputation is enough to convince Studio Job, Marcel Wanders, Studio Mieke Meijer and Sigrid Calon, some of The Netherlands most talented creative minds, to say an immediate YES when receiving the call to collaborate in this year’s event.
There are four creative elements to the display. A curious giant kitchen pan floating just beyond the pontoon is a solo piece courtesy of Job Smeets who sees art in just about anything from kitchen utensils to Elvis.
The rest of the displays occupy separate sections of pontoon real estate; brightly decorated and reflective eggs by Marcel Wanders who has made egg contours a recurring theme in his work, air inflated trees (an airboretum) metaphors for how Nature rejuvenates and connects, and an intricate octagonal gazebo – a folly tribute perhaps to the Prime Minister’s small tower just across the water.
And, nestling in-between the installations, a green garden landscape of grass, flora and fauna courtesy of visual artist Frank Bruggerman and students of the ‘Urban Green Development’ programme at International green educational college Yuverta.
It is without doubt, a beautifully constructed display, with QR and audio information on boards as you stroll along the pathways. And, just adding a touch of Dutch eccentricity to the proceedings, you can order a cappuccino with a BlowUp twist – a BlowUpcino – in various cafes and restaurants around The Hague.
BlowUp Art The Hague is clearly a demonstration that The Hague is far from boring. But as I mentioned earlier, take a closer peek and you’ll find more examples. While I was there, I took the opportunity to uncover some more examples of The Hague’s artistic side lying just under the surface.
Textile artist Celia Hadeler has opened a pop-up gallery in the city centre, a novel way for estate agents to utilise temporary retail space by offering a low rent alternative on a month-by-month basis. Celia’s obsession with the curves and folds of materials converts perfectly into hanging wall art. Or how about a way of renting designer art for your home? Gallery owner Coen van den Oever of De Galerie Den Haag and Project 2.0 was the first to come up with a way of renting original pieces for just a monthly fee of 3% of their purchase price.
But perhaps the best example of the city’s intent to grow and nurture its artistic community can be found at Billytown, an artistic co-operative that from 2015 founded studios and gallery spaces all under one roof. Buoyed with the support and help from the city council, who sourced them an empty building, twenty artists can create various curated exhibitions to the public throughout the year. And thanks to extraordinarily low-rent studios and impressive gallery spaces, they are able to forge a self-sufficient business within a thoroughly collaborative environment.
But there is more. Simply strolling The Hague’s leafy streets lets art come to you. As my guide, the incomparable Remco – a den Hague font of all knowledge, tells me, “you want art, just look up, always up. Artful architecture is all around us.” So I suggest you take a walk around The Hague’s glorious historic centre and look upand to find little architectural treasures. Have a promenade down the middle of Lange Voorhout a boulevard lined with mansions and once the most glamorous avenue in the city. it was the model for Berlin’s famous Unter den Linden. Or why not spot the Royal Palace squeezed inbetween fancy retailers on Noordeinde,The Hague’s high end heaven for retail therapy.
So, forget any thoughts of The Hague as boring. As far as I am concerned, the only hot air you’ll find being pumped out here is in BlowUp Art The Hague.
Images © The Hague & Partners and Andy Mossack.
Tell me more about BlowUp Art The Hague
BlowUp Art The Hague is available for free from Thursday, May 9 to Sunday, June 2 2024. The floating sculpture garden can be entered between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. via a pontoon bridge from the corner of Lange Vijverberg and Korte Vijverberg.
For more information on all the places recommended in this piece and what to do and where else to visit in The Hague, please visit the official tourism site at The Hague & Partners.
