Since 1993 Fundament Foundation has operated as an independent bureau for contemporary art and public space. The foundation runs a programme of annual international exhibitions in public space, of which the quadrennial exhibition Lustwarande, held at Baroque woodlands De Oude Warande, has gained a worldwide reputation. As a complement to this programme, and building upon the impact of pilot projects such as Tales of the Tip (at the former rubbish dump in Bavel, 1999) and Shopping (shopping area, city centre of Tilburg, 2003), Fundament Foundation initiated the Passanten (Transients) project in 2006: a rolling series of individual commissions for short-term contemporary artworks in the public space of Tilburg.

Inspired by the Romantic notion of the flâneur and the related concept of the dérive, or drift, as put forward in the 1950s by the Situationists, with Guy Debord in the forefront, and going against the flow of contemporary processes of urban transformation, which are usually the result of models shaped by advancing globalisation, these artists from different parts of the world enter into the urban space of Tilburg. Through investigation and intervention, employing a variety of forms and strategies, they present proposals for temporary works of art that offer opposition to the prevailing canons and spatial limitations, thereby initiating new models of action and experimenting with new transdisciplinary forms of collaboration for the public space. With this project, Fundament Foundation seeks to explore the possibility of not presenting an artist with a concrete location or a specific theme, but instead with the entire city and the general notion of public space. The intention behind Fundament Foundation’s approach is not only to investigate and create new possibilities for art in the public space, but also to develop wider perspectives on the city, which may make a contribution to urban planning and regeneration. The duration of the individual Passanten projects is not fixed, but related to the nature of the intervention; interventions can vary in length from a few hours to several years.

link: fundament foundation