BlowUp Art 2026 – Anniversary Edition

John Körmeling creates art that moves or responds to its surroundings. He became widely known as the architect of the Happy House and Happy Street – the Dutch pavilion at the world expo in Shanghai (Expo 2010). These projects were inspired by an earlier rotating family home on the Hasselt roundabout in Tilburg.

Körmeling’s kinetic artworks are not just about form, but also about movement, rhythm and time. This fascination led to the prototype of the ever-ticking calendar. He became intrigued by a 19-year cycle discovered by the ancient Persians in the positions of the sun and moon. His endless calculation of days, months and years is condensed into a monumental yellow donut-shaped sculpture.

Like a wave of creative energy, this inflatable artwork by Kiki & Joost bursts from the windows of Pulchri Studio. It's covered in arrows pointing the way toward positive thinking — a visual ode to the power of art in The Hague’s cultural landscape. The Eindhoven-based duo, Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk, blend a craft-based sensibility with imaginative design. For BlowUp Art The Hague, they bring their colourful, tactile world into the public space.

Their inflatable sculpture is both playful and monumental — a powerful gesture full of childlike wonder. It seduces, enchants and confuses — a celebration of form that embraces air and lightness, without losing depth.

Eugenie Boon creates an installation centred around identity, heritage and spirituality. Born in Curaçao and living in The Hague for the past five years, she brings Caribbean visual culture into dialogue with contemporary art practices. Colour and symbolism play a key role in her work.

For BlowUp Art The Hague, Boon translates these themes into a large-scale inflatable card game — both playful and deeply meaningful. Her sculpture tells a story of diaspora, connection and cultural pride. She turns air into a form of presence: her work breathes strength, community and movement, infusing public space with new energy.

Growth is the central, primal theme in the work of Piet Warffemius — in both his paintings and sculptural practice. Painting is his starting point and creative laboratory. Since 2004, Warffemius has also gained recognition as a sculptor. His works range from small pieces in bronze or cardboard to large-scale corten steel objects and inflatable installations.

A recurring motif is the distinctive two-lobed leaf shape of the ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba). With minimal means, Warffemius evokes a powerful poetic resonance. In public space, his work becomes both light and meditative: a quiet intervention in the urban landscape that invites stillness, reflection and a slower pace.

For decades, Fransje Killaars has explored the power of colour, textiles and ritual. Her installations—composed of carpets, fabrics and draperies—show how art can transform spaces and activate communities. In her work, the boundary between object and environment, between function and meaning, becomes fluid.

For BlowUp Art The Hague, Killaars translates her vivid colour fields into a monumental inflatable sculpture that makes the Lange Voorhout pulse with energy. Her work is both sensory and monumental — an ode to colour as a carrier of emotion, movement and rhythm. The sculpture becomes a temporary beacon of vibrancy in the city.