French designer Julien Carretero has used timber excavated from Eindhoven's medieval city walls to make a series of objects that could be used in an insurgency, including a catapult and a ladder.
Called In Situ, the series also includes a pulley and matchsticks.
Above photograph is by Laurens Mulkens
Carretero displayed the pieces across the city of Eindhoven.
Above photograph is by Laurens Mulkens
They're now on show at Gallery S. Bensimon in Paris as part of an exhibition called Matter of Time, organised by collective Dutch Invertuals.
More work by Julien Carretero »
More information is provided by the designer:
In situ
In situ is a series of objects made of recently excavated wood from Eindhoven's Medieval city wall.
After more than 600 years underground, the oak wood that was once used to protect the city is brought back to the public space in the form of instruments for revolution.
Their intervention aims to question and challenge the routine taking place in cityscapes. Through the creation of situations of wonder, In situ wants to break public passivity and encourage passers-by to actively participate to the spectacle of daily life.
The In situ props, which all share the symbolic value of both escape and uprising, interact with wanderers on various levels: may these be physical, visual, narrative or emotional.
In situ wants to unleash feelings and people. In situ is a trigger.
The In situ project is part of the 'Matter of Time' exhibition organized by design collective Dutch Invertuals, under the curation of Wendy Plomp. The 'Matter of Time' exhibition is currently on display at Gallery S. Bensimon (Paris).
This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Archeological Centre of Eindhoven and the City of Eindhoven.
the reason the Dutch government is cutting arts and culture budget stems from this sort of pointless work
Its sad to know that they're selling that wood to produce things, things that are so trivial as a catapult or ladder. I have a great appreciation for art, and respect the work as such. But it is quite disgusting to see historically significant wood into something that is as silly as a catapult.
i understand that it is "historically significant" wood…but it is still just wood. i'm glad that the wood can be used for a design and still maintain a purpose after so long.
what else would you like to see the wood being used for?
Well, the exposition Dutch Invituals this was part of during the Dutch Design Week showed several other projects using the same wood – in my view mostly in a much less pointless way.
Specifically the project of RAW Color was extraordinary.
http://www.dutchinvertuals.nl/website.html?id=366…
This is a small trebuchet, known as a couillard.
When a project like this gets inundated with negative comments and criticism, they ALWAYS say 'yeah but it's designed to unleash discussion, it's a trigger'. I assume the rubber tires and the concrete and the rope and the stainless steel bolts were also excavated at the same site?
Big sigh
Thanks for posting this though. Continuing thanks for this great website.