BUILDING BRIDGES

Crowd-funding has become popular over the last years. Lots of cultural, artistic and design initiatives have already been made possible thanks to this kind of funding. And it even works for urbanism! An example is the 'I make Rotterdam' project, an initiative of the IABR in collaboration with the architectural bureau ZUS. It's a crowd-funded project to build a 350m public pedestrian bridge called 'Luchtsingel' to make the district around Rotterdam central station more attractive. Every individual has the possibility to buy a piece of the bridge, a wooden shelf which gets imprinted with the name of the person or organisation. Some people use the shelf in a creative way for example to express their love for someone or to share a quote or spiritual message. When you are in Rotterdam and you're interested in crowd-funding, it's nice to go and have a look. It's a pity that the shelves are not high quality but it still is a nice project which enhances some kind of togetherness. And maybe you'll spot my name somewhere..

r'dam street art by dante horoiwa

LOOK AND FIND

Yesterday was a day full of unexpected finds.

Found the perfect dress in a vintage clothing store in Rotterdam. A gold-rimmed black dress, very cheap but chic at the same time. The most important reason I bought this dress is that it shows it's 'handmade with passion'. I usually don't like it when clothes are too obviously home made. But this time it was different cause I just could feel this woman went the extra mile to make it look perfect on her. How could I not buy this dress?! I imagined that long ago this woman designed the dress herself to impress some nice man. She sketched it over and over again on squared paper to finally come op with the perfect design. She spent hours behind her old sewing machine to make it flatter her womanly curves. Although the fabric is not high quality, she just didn't have much money, she made it look as chic as possible. I really hope she impressed the lad! But I'm sure it looked great on her. And I surely will wear it with pride.

It's a pity she didn't sew her phone number on some little tag in the back of the garnment. Wish I could call her to let her know this dress is enjoying a second life on a woman with the exact same curves!

Found a beautiful poem line on my way back from the city centre spray-painted on the pavement.

It says:

'Ik leg je in mijn oog en zie door jou de wereld'

'Laid you in my eye and I see the world'

I love to be surprised by poetry in unexpected places.

Found a package with sweet gifts from my sis on my doormat when I came home..

Thankful!

:: See me ::

I am a huge fan of steet art, especially stencil art. Whenever I am in a foreign city and walk through old narrow streets I can't resist screening the walls for some undiscovered spray painted stencils.
It must be so exciting to put them on the walls in a few seconds when nobody is watching.. Here some treasures I discovered in Copenhagen and Venice. And a beautiful graffiti of Maria I photographed last year in Milan.