'Barter with Robinson' art project in demand by hardcore bargain hunters

Pet van de Luijtgaarden has a thing for collections. So he collects them. But being an artist, he also wants to say something with those collections: 'I am mainly concerned with society. I think we are going down because of overproduction and to show that, I want to go right over the top.' That is why now that project 'Swapping with Robinson' in Utrecht: an entire trade fair hall filled with a maze-like landscape, made up of what people no longer use, 'I put all this stuff down to make people realise how much stuff they actually have, and how much they mostly mindlessly throw away.'

In defiance of the exhibition's artistic purpose, 'Swapping with Robinson' draws a less artsy audience than Pet's earlier project 'Gulliver's Collections': 'Because there can now be real bartering, real bargain hunters are now coming, people who arrive with something ugly, and want something nice in return.' It sometimes produces a slightly different atmosphere, but that too fits in with the project, he thinks. A good example of the misunderstanding between art and bargain hunting is the item the Youth News made, entitled: swapping makes you cry:

I walked through the hall this week with Pet van de Luijtgaarden, dressed in his special outfit for the show, and talked about what's on show. The inflatable artwork in the centre of the hall provides the necessary atmospheric noise.