THANK YOU FOR THE SUN
The petrol station is an icon of a fossil era in a post-fossil society. What kind of new function could the archetypical petrol station get in the future? During Dutch Design Week (DDW) 2018, designers Esther Jongsma & Sam van Gurp (VANTOT), Sander Wassink and Job van den Berg took on and answered this question by means of their installation Thank You for the Sun, which was on show at the Markt in the city center of Eindhoven from 20-28 of October.
2018
Creative concept
Project management
COLLABORATION with
Sander Wassink
Job van den Berg
COMMISSIONED by
BIZ Eindhoven & Dutch Design Foundation
By creating a light and heat installation and combining it with a big pile of sand, a cocktail bar, a set of beach chairs and a sunshade, we created a place where people could meet, get together, consume and enjoy. A place where people could feel the warmth of the sun without there being an actual sun and where they could “refuel” in the chilly autumn weather. But, at the same time and in sheer contrast, they got people to think about what would happen if everything around energy consumption would be redesigned. It is a question that most of us do not worry about too much in daily life but is inevitably lurking around the corner. To stimulate the debate and challenge the visitors, the installation displayed the real-time temperature at the petrol station; 35.8 ºC in October?
Thank you for the Sun fueled the weighty energy debate by engaging and provocatively challenging DDW-visitors to think about the way we consume energy in our modern society.
The installation was commissioned by DDF & BIZ and is the final result of the collaboration between designers Esther Jongsma & Sam van Gurp (VANTOT), Sander Wassink and Job van Den. The designers of the temporary collective each approached the global energy issue from a different point of view. “With this installation, we did not want to give one answer,” says Jongsma of VANTOT. “Just like us, people all have their own ideas about this. Thank You for the Sun does not want to preach, but simply stimulate people in a cheerful way to come up with their own scenarios for the future of energy production and consumption. You could almost see the installation as a temple where we thank the sun for its energy and where people could contemplate their relationship with the sun.”
“In the near future, this the temperature could be reached on a regular day of October in Eindhoven..”
Someone at TYFTS
“This is such a waste of energy…”
“You’re complaining? What do you mean: you just bought clothes at Primark.”
Two women talking at TYFTS
ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
- Size of the installation: 9 x 12 meter, height 6 meter
- 72 lights consuming 100 W an hour each, 10 days
- 16 heaters 3000 W an hour each, 10 days = 1.324.800 W spilled.
- ±1500 cocktails consumed at Thank you for the Sun
- 355.000 DDW visitors
- Football play PSV – Tottenheim : 2 – 2
EINDHOVEN GYM
As an activity consuming merely human energy instead of artificial energy, people were invited to join daily yoga sessions at 10 ‘O clock in the morning.
FREE POSTCARDS
‘EINDHOVEN AAN ZEE’
Future scenarios based on the severe and extreme effects of global warming, as a result of (a.o.) energy consumption, resulting in Eindhoven at Sea. The postcards referred to icons of Eindhoven city: the Catherina Church, the Bijenkorf warehouse and the City Hall.
“35.8 ºC on October 20th, in the Netherlands?!”
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