In 2022, the year that marks the 150th anniversary of Mondrian's birth in Amersfoort, the Mondrian House has taken the initiative, together with The Turn Club and TwynstraGudde, to ask artists to address pressing social issues.
Reason for Mondrian TurnLabs initiative
On this page
The anniversary year Mondrian 150 in Amersfoort is all about imagination and innovation. The abstract art for which Mondrian became so famous does not stand alone. He strove for radical innovation, envisioning the creation of an earthly paradise. Inspired by Mondrian, artists were asked to spend 150 days in Amersfoort working on three social issues in so-called Mondrian TurnLabs.
Podcast
For 150 days (from 1 September 2022), mini-podcast episodes were published and distributed through a special whatsapp channel. Signing up for the Whatsapp channel can be done simply by sending a message to phone number: 06 82 32 48 27. Or listen to reports of the various meetings.
About the TurnLabs
A TurnLab is a working form devised by Merlijn Twaalfhoven, initiator of The Turn Club, a collaboration of arts professionals, change agents and bridge builders. In his book It's up to us why we need an artist mindset to save the world, he shows how each of us can be significant in tackling big and small world problems if people activate the artist within themselves. The TurnLabs put this idea into practice.
In the Mondrian TurnLabs, teams of 'lab technicians' led by the selected artists work with three social values under pressure in today's complex life: Curiosity, Humility and Proximity. From these values, they investigate three pressing social issues.
Curiosity
In his TurnLab, theatre-maker Bright Richards, himself once a refugee from Liberia because of civil war, tackles the value curiosity and the question: 'how do we relate to newcomers?' It does something to a refugee to end up in another country, in another culture and with other people. But the arrival of refugees also has an impact on the people already living there. In Bright's TurnLab, participants will explore with each other how to use curiosity in this context to connect people in sustainable ways.
Humility
Composer and conductor Imre Ploeg's Mondriaan TurnLab focuses on the value of humility and the question: 'how do we relate to nature?' In his musical projects, Ploeg has long studied the connection between music, art, nature, sustainability and socially pressing issues. He will work on this issue with professionals and residents of Amersfoort and will explore with them how humility can play a role in urban development.
Proximity
Merlijn Twaalfhoven will work with a team of experts and stakeholders on the issue 'How do we relate to public administration?' There has been a gap between citizens and governance for some time. Together with the participants of his TurnLab, Twaalfhoven will look for new opportunities for proximity. What form of encounter can we create between citizens and government? And how can we also give people who are a little less articulate a voice?'
Experiment
For the next 150 days, the artists are the triggers of the Mondrian TurnLabs. They do not operate as participants or co-thinkers, but rather are 'in the lead'. A TurnLab is a place where there is room for experimentation. A place where artists come together with 'lab assistants'. These are people with an interest in the theme or a particular expertise who, for example, work in government, science, education or other social organisations. Real change does not usually occur within an existing context. Space is needed for a new impulse. With the Mondriaan TurnLabs, a free space is created in a place where people work or live in Amersfoort.
Outcomes
The Mondrian TurnLabs will come to an end in March 2023. Each lab has gone through its own process and is therefore concluded in its own way. With this, we will conclude the experimentation phase and reflect on the main lessons learned by putting artists in the lead on social questions. How the insights from the labs themselves will be followed up will become clear over the following weeks.
Want to know more?
Those interested in learning more about the walk-through process as well as key lessons from the Mondrian TurnLabs can register via the website mondriaan150.co.uk. Amersfoort-in-C and TwynstraGudde have compiled these key lessons and can tell more about them. The lessons are relevant for anyone curious about how to optimise the use of artists in social questions.
The Mondrian Turn Labs are made possible by support from the Municipality of Amersfoort and the Province of Utrecht.