Meet Ivo van den Baar en Nicole Driessens > Wandschappen

Driessens &
van den Baar

WANDSCHAPPEN

The artist duo Nicole Driessens and Ivo van den Baar work in two different professional practices: autonomous art and design. The artists are extremely sensitive to what happens in their living and working environment and they actively contribute to improving that environment.

The same happens at locations where they realize (commissioned) projects and artworks. Their art is capable of generating awareness with the images themselves. In this sense, their motivation as an artist is a form of social activism.

The Feltplant

An icon from their oeuvre, The Feltplant, has become a collection of objects that has acquired a prominent place in both the art and design worlds. It originated as a reaction to a signal from their immediate living and working environment, Rotterdam Charlois, where people buy houseplants to furnish their new home, when they have finally found a place to live in Rotterdam South after many wanderings through Europe.

Emigration and the eternal search of people for where they (may) feel at home is a recurring topic in the entire oeuvre. Man is always on the move. What significance does a person attach to his place of establishment, what problems arise and which images contribute to the awareness of these continuous changes?

Cross-conceptualisation

All works of art and design projects find their way via galleries, exhibitions and design platforms to corporate collections, institutions and private individuals. The symbiosis between these worlds is just as natural as the creation of the various works.

During the development process, the ideas for images that arise in the studio or any other place during a residency are the starting point. If a concept lends itself to this, the autonomously created image can be transformed into a more functional application, with which it becomes a design product.

Conversely, sometimes applied questions lead to new autonomous works of art. The natural exchange has everything to do with a strong focus on the image as a basis and the application of the textile material, which is used in many forms by the artists.

Scripture

With the idiosyncratic use of textiles, the artist duo has acquired a unique position in both the art and design worlds. Their applications are authentic and their work is therefore very recognizable.

The work is monumental, both in its 2 and 3 dimensional execution and has a major influence on the spaces in which it is placed and is usually figurative.

The use of felt fabrics in their designs offers the convenience of sound optimization. The works of art provide a dampening effect in the spaces they are assembled.