EXPO NOORD was a duo exhibition in the previous Skatepark NOORD, we presented a series of sculptures and paintings within an environment shared with concerts and a skate competition. Different subcultures collided, not as a curated theme but as an existing condition we chose to work within.
The initial promotional text leaned into the language of commercial seduction, borrowing from the tone of brands that market intensity and rebellion back to a young audience. It framed the exhibition as something immediate, physical, and unstable. Not a quiet gallery setting, but a space of friction, adrenaline, concrete, impac:
“Broken Boards as Altars, Moshpits as Habitats. . .
Forget the quiet gallery stroll!
This is adrenaline and concrete.
Grit under your shoes. Noise in your chest.
A space where impact is the medium and chaos sets the rhythm.
We drove art straight into the raw pulse of a skate park, where falling is expected and getting back up is the only rule.
You don’t just look, you move: You dodge, stumble, push through.
Maybe you leave with bruises, maybe with something else. . .
No velvet ropes. No distance. No safe position.
Here, spectators don’t exist. You’re in it. Part of the collision, part of the spill, part of the work.
Show up! Or miss it. . .”
This was the first time Max and Elle organized an exhibition entirely outside established platforms. Without institutional framing or spatial neutrality, we had to construct the conditions ourselves, deciding how and where the work could exist, and under what pressures.
Initiated by Elle van Baaren & Max Onink