eutopia week 35

Wouter and Elke,

My home is your castle

Performance - 2/9 tm 6/9 2006 - Wouter Osterholt Elke Uitentuis
Leegeweg, Groningen

During the residence we visited several interesting places where people live on houseboats or in trailers, build or rebuild by themselves. We interviewed these people and asked them questions about the way they constructed and designed their buildings. Besides the pragmatic answers they gave us, it also gave us an understanding of their lives and daily routine. On our visits to these alternative compounds we became to like the energy and the feeling of freedom visualized by the environment and by the way people are living. We think that these alternative residential areas are important for the diversity in a city and it gives a deeper layered meaning to the environment of a city.

In this project we wanted to visualize the possibility to create your own world directly and physically in an environment where this is exceptional. Therefore we were looking for a place within a newly build area where the houses are built by big companies. For the project 'My home is your castle' we constructed a houseboat with used material. During two weeks we worked on our house without a clear construction drawing. Gradually the boat began to take shape. When it was finished we transported it to the spot where we put it in the water.

We brought the self-made boathouse to a small decorative lake within a newly build neighbourhood. The lake is surrounded by houses and streets and the small lake has no direct connection with any other open water. For four days we stayed on board of the houseboat. During our stay on the lake we noticed that our presence on the houseboat made the 'public' curious. We entered what we thought to be a public space but gradually we were confronted with the semi-private atmosphere of this space. The physical distance felt really close and we were continuously watched from behind the curtains, from balconies, gardens and the surrounding streets. But at the same time there was a distance because our boat was lying in the middle of the lake. We were balancing on the boundaries of private and public space. Our first idea of the autonomous quality of the sculpture itself transformed to a more social performance about voyeurism.

After the first day we noticed that we had brought adventure in the backyard of the inhabitants. In a peaceful neighbourhood where nothing exciting or exceptional is happening suddenly there were these people trying to live in a small and primitive houseboat. The first night we were under attack by some stormy weather and lots of rain. Our boat wasn't fixed properly and we hit the shore. Immediately there were people helping us and offering us drinks and a more comfort place to sleep.

The inhabitants watched our movements very closely and in the same time we observed their behaviour. Most of them didn't communicate to us directly; the ones who did asked us what we were doing, how long we were going to stay and how we came there. Some of them were also curious how we survived on this houseboat; they asked if we had a toilet, electricity, enough food, etc. There were people who couldn’t believe we lived without electricity.

Our temporarily presence in their backyard broke the illusion of peace and safety. Suddenly we were a new component in their environment. We were accepted for 4 days and 4 nights to stay in this semi-private space. Nobody called the police. Was it because the performance was absurd or did they like a little excitement in their quiet environment? A lot of questions for both sides came up during this experiment. It didn't give us any answers only new opportunities.