>Play - Paradox : Paradox

Powerlessness, vitality, love, aggression, expression…

>Play is about what it is like to be young, anywhere and in all eras. For three years the Rotterdam photographer Carel van Hees turned his camera on the youth of Rotterdam. He focused on their character, their aura and energy. His intense black and white photography is rooted in the strong Dutch documentary tradition of human interest photography. In >Play Van Hees fulfilled his long-cherished wish to combine photography with other media.

For example, starting from Van Hees’s images and the characters in them, programme producer Ingrid Smits made a series of broadcasts for Radio Rijnmond. The interviews were combined by audio artist Leo Anemaet with a large number of sounds Van Hees collected, such as the thud of pile-drivers, passing trams and the ubiquitous mobile telephones. These urban noises were supplemented with rap and music made for >Play by a group that came together especially for the project, comprised of scratcher Mike Redman, sampler Budy Mokoginta and trumpeter Eric Vloeimans. The audio was recorded on a cd which is an inseparable component of the 288 page book.

NeonMedia is responsible for the website (www.play-record.nl) that offers an overview of all the elements of the project, and an invitation to respond. The SKVR (Rotterdam Art Eduction Foundation) and Digital Playground are developing programmes with youth surrounding >Play.

Communications agency KesselsKramer designed all the printed materials (the book and posters) and the promotional campaign.

Production was in the hands of Bas Vroege and Maartje van den Heuvel (Paradox).

Authors

Since 1980, Carel van Hees (b. 1954, Rotterdam) has been working as documentary photographer in assignment for advertising agencies, companies, municipal institutions and for a range of weekly and monthly magazines such as Vrij Nederland and NRC M Magazine. Next to these assignments he concentrates on his own projects. Some of his most renowned projects and books include Saxman, Play, Cross Fade, 2KM2, and Cor Eversteijn.

Most recently, Van Hees was commissioned by the Rijksmuseum's Document Nederland project to make a visual record of education in the Netherlands, focusing specifically on his hometown: Rotterdam.

website

Platforms

Exhibition

The >Play exhibition brings together the photographic, audio, and cinematic components of >Play in an impressive installation. It has traveled through a number of European cities. It was launched at the end of 2001 in former storage warehouse Las Palmas on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam, in a space of 60 x 20 meters. A labyrinth of twenty enormous see-through projection screens with alternating projections. A large wall with headphones through which interviews with those portrayed could be heard. A reading table was installed with books and computers linking to the website. Three monitors show a permanent loop of >Play, the film.

For the exhibition in Las Palmas in 2001, designed by Jeroen de Vries, VJ/artist Gerald van der Kaap programmed a 20 screen projection backed by Anemaet’s soundtrack. The film made by Carel van Hees at the invitation of Rotterdam 2001 will also be shown there.

Production: Paradox, NFI
3D Design: Installation design: Jeroen de Vries, Gerald van der Kaap
Technical: Eduard Visser, Wim Plas
Opening by Tombox with: trompettist Eric Vloeimans, deejays Mike Redman, Eni-Less en de breakdansers Living Temple

28.05.201415.06.2014Photofestival Images Singulières, Sète, France
22.09.200721.10.2007Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg, Germany
01.01.200701.03.2007Historisch Museum, Schielandshuis, the Netherlands
01.01.200301.03.2003Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, the Netherlands
01.01.200101.03.2001Las Palmas, Rotterdam
Projection
variable in size: 6-21 screens (2x3m)
4×5 slide Kodak S-AV projectors (original, analogue version)
1x LCD projector (film) with DVD player or
5 XGA LCD projectors connected to PowerMac

Computers
1-2 tables with 2-4 iMacs for website interaction

Space requirements
200 – 1200m2
1514_factsheetplay

Book

In >Play Van Hees fulfilled his long-cherished wish to combine photography with other media. This is also reflected in the book, that comes not only with printed images, but also with a CD.

Starting from Van Hees’s images and the characters in them, programme producer Ingrid Smits made a series of broadcasts for Radio Rijnmond. The interviews were combined by audio artist Leo Anemaet with a large number of sounds Van Hees collected, such as the thud of pile-drivers, passing trams and the ubiquitous mobile telephones. These urban noises were supplemented with rap and music made for >Play by a group that came together especially for the project, comprised of scratcher Mike Redman, sampler Budy Mokoginta and trumpeter Eric Vloeimans. The audio was recorded on a cd which is an inseparable component of the 288 page book. Only the cover of this book has text material; inside only the track numbers that refer to the cd are to be found.

Buy

>PLAY
Carel van Hees, Paradox / Voetnoot Publishers, 2001.
Edited by: Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege
Graphic Design: Krista Rozema, KesselsKramer
Number of pages: 288
Book size: 23 x 32,5 cm
Language: Dutch
ISBN 90-71877-60-4
KesselsKramer (Concept & design)
Carel van Hees (Photography, concept & editing)

Website

NeonMedia is responsible for the website (www.play-record.nl) that offers an overview of all the elements of the >Play project, and an invitation to respond to the photographs. Additionally, visitors are encouraged to send e-cards to their friends and family, which could perhaps be interpreted as the 2001 equivalent of social media sharing.

Production: Neon Media & TV-station.nl
Design: Antenna-men, Rotterdam, NL, Digital Playground