Holland is a Well Regulated Country, 2000, installation

The Schie 2.0 group was founded in 1998 when Buro Schie (1991) and Konings & Beij (1991) combined their talents. It is a group of designers of different disciplines who deal with the issues of public space. They design it at different levels. In urban planning they are primarily concerned with the intertwining of the artistic and the urban; in the cultural landscape they pay particular attention to its characteristics. They create with a mixture of freedom and responsibility, permanence and consumerism, making use of the intermeshing of nature and urban space. The project they present at Manifesta 3 is entitled Holland Is a Well Regulated Country, addressing the problem which, according to the Schie 2.0 group, plagues Dutch society. An issue is the society's overwhelming number of rules and regulations, and these are still increasing rapidly. Everything in this society is flawlessly organised and well thought-out, so that nothing is left to chance. This exaggeration has brought about a keen sense of the lack of personal freedom, and also the belief that people are becoming too passive. No one feels responsible, because there are too many rules; and at the same time these very rules stifle creativity and the spirit of invention. Discussions among inhabitants are slowly dying out, because they all blindly follow the rules. And Schie 2.0 believe that this will ultimately undermine society. Those people who nevertheless wish to live in freedom must consciously take responsibility for their own behaviour and actions. To achieve this, Schie 2.0 strive to counterbalance the rules and regulations by opening a discussion at the level of freedom and the level of rules.