When we pass a house we cannot avoid being curious about how the inhabitants execute their lives. Somewhat against our will we perform conventions of evaluation in respect of how the garden appears; is there toys and bicycles thrown around announcing children? What is hanging to dry on the clothing rack next to the house, telling us about the age, class and size of individuals forming a household? How is a house lit at a certain time of the day? Peaking in the windows we can draw conclusions of habits and economy; a mother in the kitchen or is there bookshelves filled to the brim with books? Our houses and their content describe who we are? The Spiral House Exhibition

In newly built environments interior decoration and how we fill our dwellings tell even more about us, as houses has not been given patina to our everyday life. Yet it is fascinating to what extent we in European contexts tend to desire to fit in to an all over scheme of living conditions. In recent years our interest for interior decoration has increased drastically. It is today important to, so to say, customize our living conditions, and commercial interest propose to us that we continuously exchange the ornamentation of our lives. Our furniture, curtains and the size of our television set propose who we are to a large extent, but decoration, except for Christmas, remain largely on the inside, possibly with the parabolic antenna as a peculiar exception. International Festival takes an interest in how the decoration of our houses also could take on other shapes, announcing whom we are and how we value life. Something that is oversized and gives a clear address to the environment, still in the context of mass-produced housing.

Interior decoration activate us in particular ways, but often in a static way. Why do we today still use our dwellings in so strongly conventional ways, especially considering to what extent distribution of our lives has changed over the last 10 to 20 years. We still consider a kitchen of importance however we today cook 10% of the time that we used to prepare food 35 years ago. I’m using my laptop everyday, but my kitchen is still attached to the wall, and I sit with the laptop in the kitchen?

International Festival is in this project addressing two sides of this argumentation, on the one hand turning interior to the exterior, reproducing an amount of the house on the outside as a means to perform space, and on the other the visibility of who we are, in respect of over sizing the address to the environment.

As always in International Festival’s work it addresses volatile aspects of space, emphasizing movement and the performance of seemingly stable structures.

In this project International Festival intend to attach a large size, helium filled, balloon to the house. The balloon will be white or pink attached with International Festival’s signature.

The balloon, of an approximate volume of 36 m3 will extend the house with an additional space equal to one third of the lived space, and thus extent the surfaces due which the inhabitant produce identity.

The balloon is also a means to turn interior to the exterior, and to decorate living conditions in an unconventional and performative sense.
For International Festival it is also important to think about how the project will become visible during Bo06 and thus performing the threshold between private and public sphere in a sense that opens for considerations of how we inhabit spaces today. An interesting issue for International Festival is the meeting between a public visitor and a space specifically designed for private use.

The balloon will activate the house both in the sense of mediatization, it is our conviction that the balloon will create strong public interest, possibly because its cheer size, and in the sense of a generous effect, as in children’s party, festivity and desire. Balloon is something that takes us away, that produces laughter and offers us to dream ourselves away. To where could this balloon, at least metaphorically speaking, take this house? Could the house one evening take of to a foreign place, and settle in an entirely other context where it’s expression would imply something entirely different.

In order to proceed with the project it is important to investigate, as soon as possible, local authorities, if such a project is legal and desirable. International Festival will investigate possibilities for sponsorship and similar issues in the mean time. The project will imply a certain economy that would, if possible, be interesting to share.

International Festival hope that the project can offers something specific to an interesting project and hope that we can find solutions to make our house take of a little during Bo06.