Part of the DDW 2014 was THE GLASS HEAP CHALLENGE NL/2014
Starting at the 18^th of October we welcomed the Masters Arnout Visser, Daniel Geamperle, Jan-Willem van Zijst and Matthew Durran. The Master class offered the possibility for artists, designers and architects to study the possibilities of the reuse of glass. These working processes were open for the public.

Read all on recycling/up-cycling, the masters, the symposium and organisation>

At Monday the 20th a full program was offered in the Symposium at the Van Abbemuseums auditorium for the participants The Glass Heap Challenge NL/2014, students from different academies and glass departments and guests. As a keynote speaker Caroline Prisse led us on an incredibly professional and cheerful way through all lectures. After an enthusiastic word by Marie-Ann Schreurs, alderman of the city of Eindhoven, Lex van Lith, director Beeldenstorm (the hosting workplace) told about the vision of Beeldenstorm; Mireille Houtzager talked in her lecture Mirror, Mirror on the use of material in making art, design or architecture, while Hélène Besançon, curator of the National Glass Museum talked about giving glass a second life and challenging all visitors to come with plans to show good works by reusing glass. Jan Walrave, former director of several museums in Flanders talked on the typical features of glass and its development in art.

After the lunch break Angela van der Burght flew with very interesting images as a high speed train through history to visualize how glass changed the world and will keep on changing our future world.
Then the Masters showed their visions on glass and their works.

Ingrid Bongers welcomed all persons present as hostess of the symposium.

Saturday afternoon we cleaned out all kilns and the working place to build a glass blowing stage for the next day and also an exposition on the participants work process and final statement to be evaluated by all participants, Lex van Lith and the Masters.
 

Finally on Sunday the exposition was open for the public while Arnout Visser and his team of glass blowers with Josja Caecilia Schepman and Marek Effmert- worked with the participants in blowing up old glass bottles in their moulds or forming them freely.

In the afternoon Two Times Soft: The Glass Performance, A breathtaking performance in which Hanne Sa is looking to find her way through a labyrinth of 500 broken beer glasses. On the one hand the vulnerable body, on the other hand, the dangerous glass.

Glass performance-United-C
United-C is well known for their innovative live art on the boundaries dance, performance and theatre. The work is more and more being performed outside Holland.
Since 2009, director Maarten van der Put has been working on a series of nudes, Together they form a menu of performances that ‘uncensoredly’ show the body in confrontation with life.
For United-C nakedness is intrinsic to the human who wants to hold on to - or rediscover - his authenticity. The binding factor within these ‘Performances of the Body’ is the power and vulnerability of the individual performer who literally throws himself into battle., They can be read as a collection of intimate documents.
 
The Glass performance:
A girl in between 500 broken beer glasses.
Like a snake she’s searching for her own way in this labyrinth of glass. In a breath taking performance with the vulnerability of the body on the one hand and the sharpness and danger of the glasses in the other. For 18 minutes you forget to breath. An hallucinating trip. One of the most exciting kind.
 
The Glass performance is performed by : Hanne Schillemans
 
The music of Ralph Timmermans increases the intensity of this contrasting experience. Sacred, exciting and comforting at the same time.