Melle Smets
Melle Smets (1975) is active as a researcher, artist and critic, and is specialized in issues related to public space. Smets visualizes traces from the past and present to explore the relationship between man and his environment. He works as a consultant, lecturer and speaker at universities in the Netherlands. His aim is to create a broad public awareness to reflect on the contemporary landscape. After finishing a study Art and Public Space (OK 5) at the art academy in Arnhem in 1999, he co-founded the artists collective GANG. The group organized city dwelling tours, exhibitions for airports, harbours and highways. In 2005 he moved to Rotterdam where he set up shop. He founded a Dutch Highway museum, wrote a book about his experiences living in a car for 30 days and participated in a number of landart projects.