Hello Mumbai! - Parade of Floating Objects

Hello Mumbai

The sea belongs to everybody. She gives, takes and threatens and has always been a great inspiration for artists and designers. In recent years, the sea is being polluted by tons of litter and plastic fibres, the so-called Plastic Soup. Not only the sea is polluted, chances are that microplastics contaminate our rivers, lakes, drinking water and even our food.

Worldwide, people are becoming more and more aware of this situation, and many initiatives have been taken to tackle this environmental catastrophe. One of the good examples is the cleaning of the strongly polluted beach in Mumbai, India, which has inspired Graphic designer and teacher Gert Dumbar to start the project Hello Mumbai! at the KABK.

About the project

It is simply not acceptable to see the news about the strongly polluted ocean without reacting, and creativity is a way to generate a discourse and to change dramatic situations into inspiring ones. KABK students Interactive/Media/Design and Interior Architecture & Furniture Design have worked together to address this topic. Hello Mumbai will result in a Parade of Floating Objects, made from waste and plastics, found in The Hague and transformed into small boats and floating objects. The fleet will be launched in a festive parade at Scheveningen beach on June 4, 2019.

World famous Dutch artist Theo Janssen, renowned for his Beach Animals has joined the teaching staff of the KABK for a couple of weeks, assisting the students with guest lectures and guidance on and off the beach.

The ultimate goal of this project is, to start a worldwide design marathon that will inspire art schools located at the sea (such as the KABK) to join and share their research and design activities concerning the Plastic Soup theme. The project will be filmed and shared on social media afterwards.

Hello Mumbai is supported by the City of The Hague.