The stairs you walk up and down every day. In love, angry, tipsy, sober, irritated, horrified, amazed. Either way cursing and screaming about the day that overwhelms you. Anyhow, it will always be playful. Playful like a child, the child that comes up. The child you look down on. The child will always loosen up. The child you look up to. The genuine feeling of anger and love. The genuine intensity. These feelings bring excitement and thrill. The exciting, or sometimes negative thoughts create life. This publication will make you think twice, of how to deal with negative thoughts. When do we hide behind the pink-colored glasses, and lift ourselves back into our children’s jacket?

How thin is the line between enemy and friend? Do we embrace the negative thoughts, while ignoring the positive ones? Do we secretly love our enemy more? Jos Houweling has perfectly described the romance of swearing. How do you read this publication? It seems as if we have lost the enchanting gifts of ‘playing’, during our adult lives. Soon we will lose the humor of swearing. It is just a busy day! The bus is late, your mouth mask is still laying on the stairs, a friend drives by and leaves you standing. The raindrops are dripping through the crowns of your hair and are short-circuiting your wireless earphones which, miraculously, you haven't forgotten. Also, your wallet is still on the stairs. What can go right? Cursing! Swearing at the stairs where you put all your goodies, when you happily come home every day.. **** forgot the key. Who do we curse at, anyway?

Jos Houweling is founder of ‘De Bond voor het Vloeken’ (The Union of Cursing), and incorporates, every day on paper, a healthy dose of envy into his typographic works. Good triumphs, however, the evil contributes to the tension of the whole. Also in West's 2013 exhibition, there were works of art that presented the world in evil, and benevolent light. Do they reinforce each other, or do they separately attract an equal amount of attention? Until 2010, Jos Houweling was director and head of the Master of Autonomous Art at the Sandberg Institute. For 25 years he taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where he founded the former Audiovisual Department. He was the initiator and driving force behind 'Kunstvlaai', an alternative art fair in the Westergasfabriek, and 'The One Minutes' videos.

Download PDF

Text: Lotus Rooijakkers