01 Poptahof residency october 2009: The ideal man house

Door Anja Sijben

In a flat scheduled for demoltion in the neighbourhood ‘ Poptahof’ in Delft, five artists invited by Anja started their ‘ideal man project’. Anja Sijben, Ine Geraedts, Meg Mercx, Rob Verwer, Rob Visje, started discussing and fabricating work around the theme. Between the five, many knowledgeable and inspirational exchanges took place in the house.


Poptahof, a typical area. Many skyscrapers and housekeeping with a colourful inhabitation from many cultural backgrounds. This was a trigger for discussion. Some artists were born in a similar neighbourhood, others had lived in such an area. And for others it was amazing how quiet it was, enjoyable with a small garden and green scenery, and the many community employees who cleaned the neighbourhood every day. We were astonished how clean this neighbourhood was kept. And how abandoned! Hardly anyone on the street. At a certain moment Anja went shopping in the mall opposite our house. There they were! Just like the Kalverstraat, the main shopping street in Amsterdam. Beautiful sun outside and the people sat on the terrace inside the covered mall….. For her the little garden meant being closer to nature then living in Amsterdam, but for them this nature obviously didn’t exist or there was no need to enjoy the sun more, nor was fresh air needed. Remind her a little bit of Omaha, Nebraska, USA were she asked the local people whether there was something interesting to see at the other side of the river. Not really, they answered, the same shops are also closer by….Is the consumerism already that far that people only think in shops and outside this don’t experience anything anymore?

If we are in Omaha or in Delft, were is the ideal man that defines his own goal and direction in life and doesn’t let himself be influence by what is presented at him. A point of discussion in the ideal man house.

A short impression through the house and the works made during our stay.

02 The ideal man tinkers

An ideal man has a place where he can tinker and investigate, research into not developed roads. He is curious and can be occupied with something for hours until he finds what he is looking for, in the meantime executing all the little jobs needed to do in the house. Not postpone but just execute them right away. Rob Verwer has expressed his curiosity, his playfulness and his tendency toward technique and building with day-to-day objects in his work by entering the ideal man house. And who listens carefully: a composition of sounds!

03 The ideal man laboratory

The kitchen table was the central meeting place in the house, the so-called laboratory in search of the ideal man. Here many discussions took place about the ideal man. Our collective created work was in a shortened version projected on the wall in the kitchen during the presentation on October 25th 2009. The visitors at the table formed an extension of the discussion group.

The ideal man as a ‘mythoman’, the ideal man in the feministic time period, the ideal man in books and films.



Also ideal man fantasy drawings aroused on the kitchen wall, inspired by the research in the laboratory. In old brown tiles, well known, where we as children could see monsters and other fantasies, again and again and every time see something different…

04 The ideal man and power

The ideal man as leader, idol for many people. This in contrast with the man without a name, as a number, all the same, all together as an offer for the ideal. Who is ideal? Is that idol as ideal as it seems? Ine Gereadts shows her video in the prior living room. Her subtleness in sensing, representing, combined with vulnerable dictated voices strengthens the drama.

05 The ideal man impression from media

The bouquet book series lead to Meg Mercx work. The ideal man in the media and film and how does film and media influence the view that adolescents have of the ideal man. Together with Rob Verwer, they interviewed 14 – 16 years old: what is your ideal man? The same survey was also asked to elderly people. A selection from all the collected expressions was the wallpaper in the staircase of the house.



In the pink rose girl’s bedroom the real ideal man was carries by Barbie Ken’s. Or did the attention of the visitor slip to the ideal kisses in shown films? Meg’s magnificent realistic way of painting of the human body brings the visitor with both legs return back on earth.

06 The ideal man in dreams

In another bedroom the ideal man in Anja Sijben’s dreams came back in drawings on the wall. Also she was inspired by the wallpaper, holes in the wall, even by the electricity plugs in the room. The lines which arose after the wallpaper was torn from the wall were inspiration for the contours of the men. Now and then the visitor saw them loom up again on the wall, or did they really came to live? The vulnerable way of drawing, sometimes rarely visible lines let the visitor think whether they really exists, those dreams..

07 The ideal man on the street

Ine Geraedts presented a video with two lively dancing men in a park, combined with a contrast of two man on a beach, sometimes synchronic turning to let also tan their other side by the sun. Or can the ideal man sooner be found in the neighbourhood? Many pictures of men spotted in the neighbourhood made the visitors wonder so.

08 The ideal man in- or outdoors

Also Rob Visje was inspired by the neighbourhood. In the Poptahof area, would the ideal man be there? And how will he behave outdoors and how indoors? A temptation for Rob Visje to create a piquant version of the ideal man in- and outdoors at the same time. The painting, a little too vehement to present behind the windows at the street side, we decided. Presented instead in a small sleeping room increased the secrecy even more. In his way of painting letting come back the raw reality.

09 The ideal man in body power

To make space for the painting ‘the naked man’ of Rob Visje, a wardrobe closet had to be removed. We found this an ultimate expression of an ideal man. He brakes down a closet without tools and measures his powers, he attacks his opponent (in this case the closet) with his own body. In cooperation Rob Verwer and Anja Sijben captured this action on video and presented it in the shower through a little hole cut out in the shower door.

10 The ideal man as hard worker

What is visible on the street of the ideal man house, was the ‘shelf filler’ painting of Rob Visje. A worker as ideal, on the background disappearing but now put in the foreground. To put him on a throne as an ideal. Ideally!




The research of the ideal man will continue….


Websites of the participating artists:

Anja Sijben www.exima.nl
Ine Geraedts www.neemwaar.carbonmade.com
Meg Mercx www.megmercx.nl
Rob Verwer: www.robverwer.nl
Rob Visje www.robvisje.nl


More information about our project and the residency in Poptahof in Delft:
http://www.id11.nl/flatland07.htm