Stimuleringsfonds

In January 2025, the Creative Industries Fund NL called on makers and designers in the disciplines of design, architecture and digital culture to submit a proposal for a residency at the Van Doesburghuis in Paris. Tymon Hogenelst has been selected for a four-month working period.

28 April 2025

assessment

In response to the Open Call Recidency Van Doesburg House, we received 24 proposals. These were assessed based on portfolio, CV, work plan, presentation plan, and motivation. The advisory committee evaluated the applications on artistic quality, the quality of the development plan, and the motivation in relation to the objective of the residency’. Atelier Tymon Hogenelst was selected with Avantgarde(n): A garden that never came to be. Hogenelst will live and work on this project at the Van Doesburghuis from 22 September 2025 to 18 January 2026.

selection

Avantgarde(n): A garden that never came to be focuses on developing a contemporary garden design for the Van Doesburghuis that builds on Theo van Doesburg’s unrealised plans. For Hogenelst, this residency marks a return to a meaningful place; as an 18-year-old, he visited the Van Doesburghuis just before studying architecture in Delft. This experience confirmed his choice to become an architect, fascinated by the way the house seamlessly connected living and working.

During preliminary research in the archives of the Nieuwe Instituut, Hogenelst discovered a letter from Theo van Doesburg to Anthony Kok from March 1930, in which Van Doesburg asked for advice on plant species for his garden:

We are sitting here in the mess and commotion with an eye on the construction work, which is making progress. We would love to hear from you as an expert about different types of flowers, climbers, privet, etc. for planting our little garden.

Nelly van Doesburg later explained that Theo did want to create a garden to his own design, but was never able to realise it before his death.

The project explores how the avant-garde vision of the Van Doesburgs could be translated into a garden that forms a harmonious link between architecture and nature. For inspiration and research, Hogenelst will undertake excursions to nearby gardens such as Versailles, Jardins de l’Arche, Parc Citroën and Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. His ambition is to formulate a contemporary response to the ideas of Nelly and Theo van Doesburg. Based on the insights gathered, he will develop a concept for a speculative garden that never was but could have been – an ‘Avantgarde(n)’ that reflects the vision of the Van Doesburg couple.

contribution

Hogenelst receives a contribution of € 2,000 per month for travel, material, transport and accommodation costs. The cost of renting the studio, living space and support is paid directly to the Van Doesburghuis by the funds.

background

Since 2017, by means of open calls, the Creative Industries Fund NL, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Performing Arts Fund, the Mondriaan Fund and the Dutch Foundation for Literature have jointly offered a residency at the Van Doesburghuis in Meudon-Val-Fleury just outside Paris. In this studio house that Theo van Doesburg designed for himself and his wife Nelly in the late 1920s, designers and makers – ranging from a director, curator, screenwriter, researcher or architect to a maker of digital culture – can carry out research, develop ideas or create new work. The Creative Industries Fund NL is coordinator of this open call.