No time to WASTE

Chikako Watanabe is the first of our participating artists to submit her sketch proposal for Open Source. We met at the Lloyd Hotel for a coffee. She has just received a grant from Japan, so it was a bit of a celebration as well. We discussed the planning for the next year, because Open Source is just one of several projects she will be working on in 2008 and 2009. As so often happens, she is trapped in a time paradox.

The Programme Committee will convene for the artistic evaluation of the first round of sketches at the end of April. Then, a technical evaluation will take place by specialists. The advice of both teams will be placed before the Board of the Street of Sculptures Foundation, which will then make the final decision on the next phase. This will only be in May.

Chika’s proposed work of art for Open Source involves a lot of research. Taking into account her timetable for the upcoming months, she would need to start the research now. If she has to wait until May for the formal decision and commission, there won’t be enough time for the research. So what to do?

We concluded that she should start the research and use her preliminary results for one of her other projects, an exhibition at Ellen de Bruijne Projects in April 2008. So actually, you can have a sneak preview of one of the art works a year before Open Source opens in May 2009.