Perfect Day (Neeltje Ten Westenend icw Henriette Waal)

The ‘Hoograven Invites You’ is part of Utrecht Manifest in which the Hoograven district in Utrecht plays a central role. With the exhibition United Minds in the Pastoe Factory, Urban Think Tank, headed by architects A.Brillembourg and H.Klumpner, shows various proposals for the future of this district which is the outcome of an intensive dialogue with a variety of persons involved and not in the least the residents themselves. The issues about Hoograven are not unique, and can be recognized at other places in and outside Utrecht, like in the Overvecht district.

Like Hoograven and other districts built in the 1960s and 1070s, the design of the Utrecht Overvecht district is based on the modernistic ideals about collective behaviour; ideals which nowadays are largely regarded to be outdated. The height of the blocks determines the relation of the residents with the common spaces on street level. Those who live in the upper floors are part of an abstract world of light and space. They are firstly spectators when relating to the ground level, whereas residents of the lower floors relate actively to their direct environment. They may take part in collective activities to appropriate the anonymity of the public spaces.

Designers Neeltje ten Westenend and Henriette Waal explored how residents look at their daily environment. Notwithstanding these differences, in a district like Overvecht, which is dominated by high-rise apartments, almost all people have something to say about their panorama. The visual documentary Perfect Day, which was created as a result of this exploration, is a collection of events in which these panoramas converge. The documentary is firstly a registration of everyday actions and festive occasions depicted in a form of a series of short narratives about the shared outdoor space of Overvecht, a district which is to be changed drastically in the coming years.

The film will be first screened at the Dutch Film Festival on 27 September 2008 and is part of the coordinating and temporary residence project ‘In Overvecht’ of the Cultural Affairs Department of the Municipality of Utrecht. ‘We have been in Overvecht’; 27 September to 5 October 2008 inclusive, Centraal Museum. See also www.inovervecht.nl