Vrijdag 9 december om 15u00 vindt de slotpresentatie plaats van Dave van Toor (Architectuur) met als onderwerp “XXX“.

Commissie:

Voorzitter:                                       Caspar Frenken
Mentor:                                           Claudio Saccucci & Roxane van Hoof (Studio Verter)
Externe criticus:                              Giulio Margheri  
Toegevoegde criticus:                     Laura Weeber

Afstudeerdatum en locatie:
Vrijdag 9 december om 15u00
Locatie: Lokaal 01.03 Academie van Bouwkunst, Pieter Hoochweg 129

XXX

“I remember what it used to be like, years before all the change. What a drag it was when you’d go to one of those car parks, sit there for hours in your car or lingered around, trying not to look like a total creep. You could hear engines in the distance; the smell of gasoline, voices of truck drivers. Anyone could have seen us if they’d been looking close enough. It was scary, and hot. What would my mother say?”

In many cities across the western world today there has been a ‘hygienisation’ of the city: a cleaning up that is mostly intended to create the ideal conditions for commerce and tourism. From broken windows policing in New York, to the gentrification of Soho London, and closer to home, the forced desexualisation of Amsterdam. These processes often appear to be improvements – and yes, for some they are. But they always involve someone losing – the homeless lose their place to sleep or beg; artists a place to create; a street drinker a place to sit, and sexworkers their place to work, and so on, and on.

XXX is a retort towards this hygienic approach, an attempt to explore and capture the shadowy qualities of the unpolished city, focusing on the spatial significance of cruising space.

The act of cruising: Leisurely crossing and re-crossing the same place, which involve the acts of seeing (and being seen), of pursuing (and being pursued).

An act based on the thrill for sex within the public realm. It takes place in parks, public toilets, motels, along highways and car parks, as well as in dedicated establishments such as clubs and bathhouses.

Spaces of censure and celebration alike, fuelled with both the possibilities of danger and connection at the same time. They straddle the boundaries of the public and private, the respectable and the reviled, something which cannot be limited to any one location, nor can it be reduced to any gender or sexuality.

XXX invites you into the world of secret exchanges of brief intimacy and lust. It’s an attempt to provide a safe outlet for sexual exploration. A collection of interpretative stances and sideways glances that, together, map cruising culture and explores the sensual production of space.