Rainbow Soulclub, Flowers from the Cardboard Hotel

Rainbow Soulclub, Flowers from the Cardboard Hotel, foto: Charlotte Bijl

How do you survive in the urban jungle? Under the name Rainbow Soulclub the visual artists Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit work together with Stichting De Regenboog in Amsterdam, drop-in centers for the homeless and for hard-drug users. Collaboration between artists and visitors is on an equality basis: there are no ‘helpers’ or ‘needy’.

Visitors of drop-in centers are often masters of survival. They help each other and have their own ‘health care system’: they take care of those who have nothing, they share clothes, money and food and, sometimes even drugs when a person threatens to fall ill. During Cure Park, get-togethers will be held with the artists, visitors of the drop-in center Blaka Watra and the public. Here, practical strategies are shared, but also mental, philosophical and creative methods to hold out in the chaos of the city. In addition, a selection of video footage, drawings and texts from visitors are on display. All knowledge, experiences and views that arise from these get-togethers will be compiled in a manual ‘Overleven en voor elkaar zorgen in de stedelijke omgeving’ (Surviving and looking after each other in an urban environment).

Furthermore, Rainbow Soulclub organizes a clothes-exchange in the Amsterdamse Bos, using clothes from the Blaka Watra center. Cure Park visitors can take a shower and pick up clean clothes for free, provided they leave behind the clothes they are wearing. These clothes will be washed in Blaka Watra and added to the clothes exchange in the center. Everyone can participate in the collective wardrobe of Blaka Watra and experience what it feels like to have nothing, not even the clothes on your back.

Rainbow Soulclub is an initiative of the visual artists Saskia Janssen (NL, 1968) and George Korsmit (NL, 1953). Since 2005 they organize get-togethers and collaborations between artists, students and visitors of De Regenboog Groep. In 2016 Flowers from The Cardboard Hotel was published, a 256-page book featuring a selection of the projects that were carried out between 2005-2015.
rainbowsoulclub.com

The get-togethers will be held on June 5, July 8 and July 15, from 2 to 4 pm.

Gather at location 3 on the map.

Get-togethers are limited to 10 participants. Register at the program page