TRIED & TESTED
Showroom of Dutch ceramics brand Cor Unum
14 August 2017
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If you’re planning a trip to The Netherlands you usually end up in Amsterdam. Since we’re all into design here on Petite Passport add Brabant on the itinerary too as there will be lots of design-inspired events happening there the couple of months! Let’s start with a trip to Den Bosch – the design way!
In The Netherlands you have two kind of cities. The medieval ones where, with a little bit of imagination, you feel like going back in time. Such as Utrecht, Amsterdam, Maastricht and Delft. And the more modern ones like Rotterdam and Eindhoven. Den Bosch falls into the first category. It’s a pleasure to walk around the small streets and see the medieval buildings. A city with lots of photo opportunities.
My day in Den Bosch starts with a visit to the Tramkade. A former fodder factory turned into Het Werkwarenhuis with Restaurant van Aken, a pink restaurant, and Social Label. One of the founders, Petra Janssen of Studio Boot, tells me passionately about how Social Label connects designers to people with a distance to the job market. People who are blind for example or have psychological problems. Designers like Piet Hein Eek, Roderick Vos and Kiki van Eijk are involved and together they make amazing products such as tables, lamps and ceramics. Of course for sale at Het Werkwarenhuis.
They also organize cool design related events in the near future. Such as Proef Design at BrabantNacht (a design dinner and tour at Het Werkwarenhuis and a dessert at EKWC in Oisterwijk, 23 september), Pop Up Design Fietsroutes (a design cycling tour that brings you to the most creative design locations in Brabant, 2 – 24 September) and a Food & Design Festival (9 and 10 september).
Den Bosch is also full of cool spots to visit. Especially because Studio Boot works together with the owner of Eetbar DIT and with the three of them they took care of the cool interiors of De Buurt, Mariapaviljoen and Eetbar DIT. For some shopping go to the Vughterstraat where you will find spots like Oerwoud, urban plant cafe, and Daily Poetry, concept store. Westside is a design, fashion and art store in the Verwersstraat where you can also buy the Petite Passport Guides at neighbor Sissy Boy. For dinner I would recommend Pizzabar DEEG.
Because design is a big things the next couple of months in Brabant they also organized a Design Walking Dinner. Then you’ll get a three-course menu in three different restaurants. They connect a designer to a restaurant and the chef makes a dish inspired on the work of the designer. As a starter I went to restaurant Lux where they worked together with Ted Noten, my main course was at restaurant Zoetelief where they were inspired by the work of Kranen/Gille and the dessert was at Restaurant Breton by Alex de Witte.
My main reason to go to Den Bosch however was to see the exhibition by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. If you were lucky enough to visit the Venice Biennale in 2015 you’ve probably seen her installation The Key in the Hand (with 180.000 keys sent to her by people from all over the world) already which was the hit of the prestigious art festival. Now she’s showing her work for the first time in The Netherlands, at Het NoordBrabants Museum. The installation called Between the Lines will either make you want to take 1000’s of pictures or you just stand there watching all those red threads. They worked fulltime for almost 2 weeks with 2000 balls of wool to create the installation (until October 15).
There’s also an exhibition at the museum about the 80’s. And if you buy a combi-ticket you can also visit Stedelijk Museum where you can see the work of Bart Hess. In Future Bodies the artist who also worked with Lady Gaga, Iris van Herpen and Nick Knight he explores the relationship between people, nature, materials and technology (until October 1).
Check out: www.visitbrabant.com
Tramkade 22, 5211 VB 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
