For one of our Features Talkshows, commissioned by the MINT Programme (Maatschappelijke Impact Nieuwe Technologie) of the Provincie Zuid Holland we asked artist Jakob de Jonge to develop a work that could support the discussions and reflection on our current high-tech society. We decided to start a co-production period where we visited Jakob in his studio several times over a 6 month period to discuss what the essential problem is leading up to a series of options for the final piece. The work he created is called Habitat. A large, powerful painting capturing the elements of nature, technology and society while showing us the tension that exists between them.
Eventually, the work was first shown during the Festival van de Toekomst on November 10th, 2016,
After the features, the work entered the Open Collection and the artist participated in the first edition of our kickstART incubation program.
To read more on the work and what it has been up to since 2016, you can read our story Habitat on Tour.
To read more on the Feature, for which it was developed- read into Revolution of Being
About the artist: Jakob de Jonge in a Dutch artist based in the Hague, the Netherlands and has been working on a consistent commission based painting portfolio for over a decade. Apart from being a painter, he is also active in human rights and peace building with his own organization The Hague Peace Projects, which brings together diaspora from conflict areas in order to initiate dialogue and develop peaceful solutions. In his paintings he reflects on our modern society and expresses the paradoxical tension between hope and fear, ideal and reality, belief and cynicism, honesty and hypocrisy.