This year marks the 35th anniversary of De Bushalte van Rietveld (The Bus stop of Rietveld). On Sunday 29 September, this was celebrated in Eindhoven with a symposium at the nearby Van Abbemuseum.
This afternoon also saw the presentation of the book ‘De Bushalte van Rietveld Revisited’, written by Frank van der Linden. In it, an overview of the work of all 20 Eindhoven artists and designers who exhibited at De Bushal van Rietveld. The first copy of the book was presented to Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
A moustache for the Sphinx
The publicity medium/bus stop is like a late self-portrait of Rietveld. Traces of the unorthodox and the angular, of the recalcitrant going one’s own way, of the youthful flair of De Stijl to the idiosyncratic mastery of decades later, it is all there to read, from almost literally to between the lines. However, without comment, like a sphinx that remained silent. And that worked provocatively, and while musing, it evoked associations again. As, just as Marcel Duchamp boldly ushered Leonardo da Vinci’s superiorly smiling Mona Lisa into the realm of the senses with a tingling moustache, so in the last 35 years, twenty artists/companions have each time given the bus stop a moustache and given the ‘thing’ a surprising twist in a way, which, also for the future, knows no bounds.
featuring: Joost van Bleiswijk; Ton Smits & Bregje Schoffelen; Lucas Maassen; Bram Hermens; Rik van Iersel; Paul & Sappho Panhuysen; Theo Maassen; Lady Aïda; Christiane Berndes & Baltan Laboratories; Piet Hein Eek; Robert van Rixtel; Henk Visch; John Körmeling; Marsel Pott; David den Breejen; Piet Dirkx & Aldert Walrecht; Hans de Wit; Domien Coppelmans & Sacha Koulitchov; Arthur Bagen & Gaston Klein; Arie van Rangelrooij & Bert Staal.
Book ‘De Bushalte van Rietveld Revisited‘
Text: Frank van der Linden
Design: vanRixtelvanderPut ontwerpers
The book can be ordered at debushaltevanrietveld.nl
