Soft Spot / You can sit with us

The work

With 'Soft Spot / You can sit with us' Opperclaes hopes to touch a personal chord. Creating your own "sense of belonging" at a place is very personal. With Soft Spot everybody can create their own perfect space. At the same time the work invites people to not exclude others, to let others use it as well and to use it together with others. Opperclaes materialized the idea from a residential co-creation process that generated the wish for a "place where the young and old could meet". Soft Spot / You can sit with us is a mobile installation that consists of relatively big building blocks varying from 45x45x45 to 135x135x135 in different shapes. These graphic 3D elements are made of foam and coated with a soft, water resistant material. The blocks vary in size, fit together, are movable and stackable. With it people can create the most crazy, amazing but also intimate and cozy environments imaginable. The playful city is literally made together.

Designers Opperclaes

Opperclaes consists of designers and artists Linda van der Vleuten and Bruce Tsai-Meu-Chong. Opperclaes started out as a gallery in Rotterdam for upcoming (street) artists. It has evolved into a studio that specializes in graphic and spatial designs on big scale. From large scale mural productions to typographical installations and art consultancy. Clients include commercial brands, project developers, city councils and cultural organizations such as Kunsthal Rotterdam, EYE Filmmuseum, RAUM and the Wereldmuseum.

Citylab RAUM

RAUM is a cultural citylab that resides at the newly built Berlijnplein in Utrecht. It is situated in the midst of Leidsche Rijn: the largest new housing development district undertaken in the Netherlands since 1991. RAUM designs and programs a (semi) public square to contribute to building a more creative, inspiring and inclusive city. RAUM puts urban issues that affect our public realm on the agenda, programs cultural events that bring people together and realizes (new) art installations to create more playful and adaptive public spaces. RAUM curated some 25 new installations since 2017 by designers, architects and artists such as Chloé Rutzerveld, Bouke Bruins, Overtreders W, Leonard van Munster, RNDR, Siba Sahabi, Studio Ossidiana and Teun Castelein. RAUM organizes some 50 big and small events per year from exhibitions to markets. RAUM attracts about 40.000 visitors per year and uses creative placemaking as their main tool.