Installation The Red Tape. A temporary intervention in the public space. Part of the 9straatjesROOD art project, (being held in Amsterdam from September 1 through September 10, 2008).

...Since artist Roberto Voorbij discovered many connections between his autonomous art and the 9straatjesROOD event, he was quite excited to contribute his art. Voorbij: 'Elements as city branding and in a broader sense, our national identity and the fusion of these elements with commercialism, fascinate me enormously. The medium is the message, to quote Marshall McLuhan.' Voorbij's work, entitled The Red Tape, consists of trails of red tape, derived from public route pointers, applied on the street. Voorbij: 'The red tape shows the routes that visitors have taken. With this in mind I hid out on the street anonymously to follow the trails of the various visitors. Next to that a store window features a video installation that displays the fact that seven seconds* before you think you have made a decision, your brain has already made it. This is connected to the history of the 9 straatjes** in the shape of a red cow. With the tracks, the video images in combination with the live registration, the colour red stands for being led, our subconsciousness, our past.***'...


*Recent scientific research by John-Dylan Haynes from the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin has shown that seven seconds before you think you consciously make a decision, there's already activity in your brain measurable with fMRI-scans which predicts what you're about to do. This given information is translated into the video-installation by a camera in one of the shop windows which films the audience in front of it and with a delay of seven seconds shows its image on a monitor, colored in red. By doing so the viewer will be witnessing at the same time his seeming conscious moment of making a decision and the real moment of making this decision; a look into your subconscious.

**The area of the 9 straatjes is constructed in the first half of the 17th century and was primarily a place for working of hides for the leather-industry. Besides this, the cattle population in Holland consisted until 1750 mainly out of red cows. And of course, the cow can be seen as a clear Dutch symbol.

***The work is about being followed and being led, which in the perspective of marketing is an interesting element. The same counts for the tension between private and public space; although you might be in a public place you still have the need for privacy.

www.flickr.com/photos/robertovoorbij

CREDITS The Red Tape

Direction / Camera:
Roberto Voorbij

Film-assistant:
Bas Fontein

Installation duct tape:
Alf van der Vliet

Special thanks to:
Petra Beerda from
RISPENS STATE
biological cattle-breeding company for
Red Friesian Cows [ Fries Roodbont ]
IJlst (Friesland), The Netherlands

Waxwell Records, Amsterdam

Kunstenaars&CO

Entrepreneur association 9 Straatjes

Made in commission of:
VODAFONE

In cooperation with:
The Garage Creations

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roberto voorbij • 2008 ©

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