“Look,” she explains to a participant in her workshop, “I put wool around this and then I tie it together with soap and water.” Daamen is enthusiastic about her material: “Felt is so nice,” she sighs, “It is a fabric that has no fixed structure. It is a kind of textile clay and you can make whatever you want with it. In all colors and shapes.”
She passionately teaches her students, all local residents, the tricks of the felt trade. The workshop is not just about the art that is made; For Daamen it is about more than the end result: “Making art is a way to relate to the world and respond to what stimuli you receive. The workshops bring people together, neighbors who otherwise might never have gotten to know each other.”
The street as a studio, the neighborhood as a museum
The intention is that the works of art will eventually end up on the street. A few years ago, fellow artist Hans Bossman started the Van Zeggelenkunst project, in which he uses the street as a studio and the neighborhood as a museum. He leaves his little works of art everywhere. And now it is the turn of the local residents themselves.
“When I met Hans, I immediately knew that I wanted to participate in this,” says Brigit Daamen.
All kinds of art have now found their way into the streets of the Van Zeggelenbuurt. From pottery figurines to performance art in the form of a fake street workout. And now the felt street jewelry from Brigit Daamen and her students have been added.
No one can do it alone
The fact that Daamen creates her street art with local residents is very important to her, but also to the local residents themselves: “Without connection you become lonely. The world only becomes more beautiful if we do it together. Connection is vital, no one can do it alone.”
The felt works of art by Daamen and her students can be admired in unexpected places by anyone who takes to the streets of Haarlem-Oost.
