The Art of Survival

To complement the festival programme, we are exploring what survival means – not as a doomsday scenario, but as a creative force: the Art of Survival.

In September, there will be an open studio at the Lexlab Foundation’s workshop, a historic building on Botgenstraat with a fully equipped workshop, featuring professional 3D printers, laser cutters, a CNC milling machine, a complete woodworking area and a plastics recycling line. The open studio is a cultural hub, a living workshop and a meeting place. Here, residents of Dordrecht can watch and help create ‘survival art’.

Local residents work alongside a professional artist to create a sculpture from reused materials, found objects and ‘salvaged items’. Collaborating on these art projects offers diverse groups of people the opportunity to embark on a challenging and creative process together.

The end result: a collective creative reflection on an issue that concerns us all. The sculpture will take pride of place at the centre of the festive parade on Saturday 26 September. During the parade, it will be presented to the town, the mayor and the dike reeve.