Opening Friday June 16, 20.00h

ZONE is a project involving the interrelation between skate culture, art and architecture. The project is an initiative of MU in co-operation with De Vleeshal (Middelburg) and Het Domein (Sittard). The three institutions have taken the theme of skate culture as a common starting point for the development of separate programmes under separate project names. The MU programme includes an exhibition, a lecture, a film night and the design as well as the realisation of a skate bowl. ZONE will take place from June 16 through August 12, 2001. The parties involved in ZONE are MU, TUE, City Council Eindhoven, Maurer Engineering and Media, 100% Skateshop, Disaster Area and Stichting Skateboard Events Eindhoven.

Having its origins in the early sixties in Santa Monica, USA, skateboarding or skating has now world-wide developed into one of the major subcultures in our time. The culture of skateboarding can be defined as open, dynamic, energetic and creative, with a powerful influence on fashion, music, magazines and videos as well as on visual arts and architecture. The fusion of skate culture and visual arts has inspired both visual artists and architects. The work of skaters such as Mark Gonzales is highly esteemed by the art world and last year, former skate videomaker Spike Jonze was nominated for an Oscar. Both Gonzalez and Jonze participated in the exhibition Kim's Bedroom organised in MU in spring 2000.

Exhibition in MU
The exhibition in MU includes a number of features.

- Decks

The heart of the exhibition consists of well over 200 skateboards, also called decks, from the collection of Aaron Rose. Rose, owner of Alleged Galleries in New York and Tokyo and compiler of Dysfunctional, the ultimate book on skate culture, has since 1990 built up a unique collection of decks worked by skaters, artists and designers. The decks are the carriers of the artworks. Featuring decks by among others Cleon Peterson, Johnny Mojo, Yogi, Ed Templeton, Keith Haring, Futura 2000 and Dave Persaul, the collection is a representation of styles, images and trends in skateboard designing. For the very first time, the Aaron Rose collection, previously on display only in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo, will now travel to Europe to be exhibited in Eindhoven.

- Radical Contours by Jocko Weyland
Jocko Weyland, skater, author and photographer, lives and works in New York. Weyland writes for publications such as Trasher Magazine; his first book, a volume on the history of skateboarding, is to be published shortly. MU presents Radical Contours, a series of photographs by Weyland. All over the world, skaters have designed and built objects of their own accord. Weyland has photographed these ramps, bowls, grindboxes and drop-ins in an almost clinical way, deserted and devoid of all activity.
He forces the spectator to scrutinise structures by leaving the skater out of the photographs and emphasising the curves and windings, the geometry, the materials and the wear and tear. The objects are suggestive of modern minimalist sculptures, visualising both the conflict and the fusion of form and function. In the autumn of 2001, 010 publishers will issue a book of photographs by Jocko Weyland.

- Useless Acts in Urban Scenes by Hannes Schmidt
Skater Hannes Schmidt (Freiburg, Germany) describes his work as 'manipulated skatepics'. By retouching parts of the 'slam sequences' (sequences of skaters taking a bad fall) in skate videos, Schmidt creates fascinating and at the same time comic works of bodies floating around in extreme positions or lying down on the ground. Whereas Weyland erases the body from the image, Schmidt pictures the skater in full action yet without his skateboard, creating the impression of a meaningless activity in an urban landscape. In passing, Schmidt depicts the pain - and the occupational hazards - skaters are prepared to suffer while practising their favourite activities.

- Paintings by René Daniels
In the late seventies, visual artist René Daniels from Eindhoven drew inspiration from the vitality of punk and new wave but also from the shapes of skateboards. MU presents a number of paintings and sketches by René Daniels involving skateboards. After numerous exhibitions all over the world, the work of René Daniels is now on display again in Eindhoven.

- D'nell Larson
D'nell Larson is an artist from Chicago. In 1996, she made a video installation using a combination of images of a skater in a bowl and images of herself running around in a swimming pool.

- Travel Kit by David Neirings
The exhibition presents a small installation by David Neirings (Belgium) involving a skateboard and a T-shirt. Neirings has marked off an architectural lineation on the skateboard to which he has also fixed a wing as a reference to surfing (the origin of skateboarding) as well as to an aeroplane, another way of travelling through the air.

- Boarders/Borders by Cherstyn Hurley and Claire Baker
A video recording of skaters in London made by Cherstyn Hurley and Claire Baker (England). The images are deliberately out of focus, which lends them a mysterious and poetical quality.

- Design of the skate bowl
The design of the skate bowl, conceptualised by TUE students in co-operation with Marc Maurer, is to be realised on a scale of 1:1 in a former hangar in the new residential area Meerhoven in Eindhoven. The design will be presented in MU by means of a maquette.

- Soundtrack by Casey Rice and D’nell Larson
The soundtrack of the exhibition is realised by Casey Rice, musician, producer and sound engineer of Tortoise and D’nell Larson

- Film night
An evening involving films, videos, clips and commercials about and from the world of skating. Including:
Fruit of the Vine (super 8; 53 minutes), a documentary film made in 1999 by Coan Nicholos and Rick Charnoski. The film deals with the phenomenon of 'pool skating'. To skaters, the hundreds of empty swimming pools on private grounds, notably in the state of California, represent a formidable challenge. Fruit of the Vine is a documentary film about skaters travelling through California in search of these swimming pools.

- Lecture
Iain Borden is Head of the Faculty of Architectural History and Theory of the Bartlett University College in London and author of the book Architecture in Motion: Skateboarding and Urban Experience. In this book, Borden elaborates on the history of skateboarding and the connection with public spaces and the city. 'Skating has brought about a completely different outlook on public spaces, forms and functions. Skating is a living form of architecture.' Borden will give a lecture in the Auditorium of De Witte Dame. In the spring of 2001, a new book by Iain Borden entitled 'Skateboarding, Space and the City' will be published by Berg Publishers.

Design and realisation of a skate bowl
Eindhoven can boast a lot of skaters and an active skate scene, yet there are hardly any facilities for these skaters. This situation has induced MU to take action and design and realise an indoor skate park within the framework of ZONE. MU has brought together a number of parties in order to make the dream of a real skate park come true. MAURER and 20 TUE students have been asked to join forces for the duration of an 8-week study programme and develop a bold and noteworthy design for a skate bowl. This bowl, the so-called ZONE BOWL, is going to be the focal point of the skate park, which will count about eight to ten other smaller facilities. Jocko Weyland has been asked to advise on the development of the design. The ZONE BOWL will be constructed by Markus Kamps (designer and constructor of Wicked Woods in Wuppertal (Germany) and Raimond Hilhorst. A delegation from the skate scene in Eindhoven, including 100% Skateshop and the TUE skating association Disaster Area, will be involved in the various stages of the design and the realisation of the ZONE BOWL. The search for a suitable location for this indoor skate park has led to a former hangar in the new residential area Meerhoven. In two years time, the hangar, which has recently obtained the status of industrial monument, will get a definite function but until then it will serve as a skate park. MU and the Eindhoven city council have already been in talks about a new location for the skate hall in two years time. The opening of the ZONE BOWL is planned for mid-July 2001; the exact date will be issued later. The name of this skate park is AREA 51.