The Take Away​ Project

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SHORT DESCRIPTION

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The Take Away Project is a traveling intervention. In a space relevant to a local community, a structural piece of identity (floor, wall, soil, …) is removed. The remains from that removing process are transformed into a small work that is used to fill the gap in a future location where there too, a piece of its structure will be removed. As such the visual work embeds locations in other locations as a migratory chain reaction. It uses nothingness or absence as a possibility for presence, creating multiple connected spaces and identities. 

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LONG DESCRIPTION

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In an urban landscape, a citizen is confronted with both diving into his ‘self’ and into the ‘other’. The Take Away Project is a traveling intervention and focuses on generosity to ourselves and others, to the acceptance of the self and the other in our daily reality. In between fine art, architecture and social action, the project questions and builds on notions of relocation, migration, and reinforcement through transformation of identity.

 

In a space, a small (5cm x 5cm x 1cm) structural piece of identity (floor, wall, soil, ...) is removed. The remains from that removing process are transformed into a small work that will be used to fill the gap in a future location where there too, a piece of its structure will be removed. The removed piece from that location then seeks another location, creating a chain reaction and a migratory perpetuum mobile of multiple connected spaces and identities spreading out into the world.

 

Using nothingness or absence as a possibility for presence, Trappeniers creates an interplay between natural and constructed space, interior and exterior space, and shifting mental states, exploring the social implications of the unknown, and of architectural work that forms society.

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The in-situ intervention challenges the existing identity of a place, mutating it by embedding locations in other locations. The project focuses on taking away and at the same time adding identity by connecting with the outside world, and by sharing territory. A minimal approach relates urban spatiality to an abundance of human presence in societies. By bringing in a displaced element, the project opens up a space while remaining within its borders, questioning the borders of location, building and identity.

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Through metamorphosis of architectural space, The Take Away Project hence forces us to deal with the unknown, with the identity of the other that is looking for connection, something mankind has proven to feel reluctant to embrace. The unknown portrays the manifestation of something strange, it represents the out of the ordinary and it arouses fears. The immigrant ‘removed space‘ does the same yet is a constructive sign of hope, functioning as a settled small-scale embassy of another place, inspiring imagination and enriching the existing space through its presence. The project thus becomes universal in its specificity, dynamic in being static. It travels while being location- bound, invades while being invited, and invites while being invasive. A poetic action that reflects on the (re)union of supposed counterparts to create a co-existence.

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• Location 1: Beguinage, Hasselt (BE), 2021

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The first time the work took place was on April 10th, 2021 in the Beguinage of Hasselt during the expo 'Ephemeral Focus'. The expo was a group show with Evelien Cammaert, Lola Daels, Joris Perdieus, Nick Steur, Kevin Trappeniers, and Karl Van Welden. 

The removed piece will travel on and will find a new home in the new building of the Kaaitheater in Brussels.

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CREDITS

concept: Kevin Trappeniers

exhibition: Ephemeral Focus

group show with Evelien Cammaert, Lola Daels, Joris Perdieus, Nick Steur, Kevin Trappeniers, Karl Van Welden

production: Tiny things vzw 

hosted by: Vonk Ateliers

thanks to: C-TAKT, Elisa Demarré

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• Location 2: Kaaitheater, Brussels (BE), 2022

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On 5 May a piece from Kaaitheater theatre’s floor was removed, while saying 'Bye Bye' to the Kaaitheater before its two-year renovations.

The removed Kaaitheater piece will travel on and will find a new home at 78 Gallaitstraat, in the temporary offices of the Kaaitheater team.

The piece that was removed from the Beguinage of Hasselt will be publicly shown in the new building of Kaaitheater once the renovations of the building will have been ended - estimated in the cultural season 2024-2025.

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CREDITS

concept: Kevin Trappeniers

production: Kaaitheater, Stray Light vzw

hosted by: Kaaitheater

thanks to: C-TAKT, Elisa Demarré

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• Location 3: to be determined

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